Arun Patel's nose was badly damaged and disfigured when he suffered from pneumonia as a baby. PHOTO: BBC

Doctors in India have replaced a 12-year-old boy's damaged nose with a new one which was grown on his forehead.

Arun Patel's nose was badly damaged and disfigured when he suffered from pneumonia as a baby. The infection damaged the cartilage of his nose, making it difficult for doctors to fix it.

A similar operation was carried out in China in 2013 where a man who had damaged his nose in a traffic accident was given a new one.

Arun's parents took him to a doctor in their village in the central state of Madhya Pradesh when he suffered from pneumonia soon after his birth. But the treatment made his condition worse.

More than a decade later, a team of doctors in Indore city decided to conduct a rare four-phased plastic surgery to give Arun a new nose.