The unnamed boy from the eastern Indian state of Bihar had a complete thoracic ectopia cordis, a rare condition when a child is born with the heart in an abnormal position, the reports said.

“We gently placed the heart partly in the heart cavity and partly in the stomach cavity without twisting, kinking or rotating anything,” cardiac surgeon A. K. Bishoi who operated on the boy told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

Born to laborer parents, the infant was also suffering from a blood infection after his parents wrapped him in a thin towel to cover the “jutting out” heart, the paper said.