Hopes that a baby boy born with "hidden eyes" would be able to see diminished last Friday in Chengdu when doctors opened up the skin covering his right eye, Huaxi Metro News reports.

Doctors at Chengdu Ai'er Ophthalmology Hospital said the eye was poorly developed and deformed. And they doubted that he would ever be able to see.

Ten-month-old Zhong Xiaofei was born to a farming family in Redstar Village near Chengdu last year.

His parents have been taking him to various doctors since he was three days old. But no diagnosis was ever made and, due to financial difficulties, he received no treatment until June when Ai'er Ophthalmology Hospital offered to perform the operation.

The baby is one of just 17 patients worldwide suffering from the hidden-eye defect and the only one born with both eyes hidden, doctors said.

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