Doctors have applied a "world first" procedure on a 17-week-old foetus, which was diagnosed with a highly rarely found tumour known as an oral teratoma, says a new report.

However, she had been declared to survive only for a little time from then, the girl healthily took birth after five months. It has been found that the girl had to undergo an operation to get her tumour removed.

As per the findings, a scan had been performed on the womb of the mother Tammy Gonzalez at 17 weeks. The same led her to discover a bubble being released from her baby's mouth.

This led healthcarers at the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida to spot the rare tumour in the womb. Doctors told the mother that the disease was seen for the single time in past two decades.

The baby successfully underwent the procedure, which involved Mrs. Gonzalez's passing through a local anaesthetic. Since, operators needed to inject a needle from the protective amniotic sac covering the foetus. Following the same, the tumour was cut with a laser from baby Leyna's lips.

The one-hour operation gave the baby a new life even before being born, says the report. "To our knowledge, this is the first successful treatment of a foetal oral teratoma in utero", doctors say.