Picture for representational purpose only.

JAIPUR: Eight years ago, a 24-year-old woman Anita (name changed) of Sujangarh of Churu district gave birth to a baby whose twin was growing inside the abdomen of the baby. After eight years, doctors removed the twin (foetus) with hair and bones of skulls and legs. Eight-year-old Naresh (name changed), son of Anita, had absorbed his twin while he was in his mother's womb, which later developed in his abdomen.

Doctors removed unformed twin from his abdomen at DB general hospital attached to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Medical College, Churu on Tuesday.

When Naresh was born, there was a half-formed body parts of his twin was growing in his abdomen. Doctors of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Medical College, Churu, who removed it from his abdomen, claimed that it was constantly growing in size and it was almost weighing three kgs.

Initially, it appeared as a cyst in the abdomen of an eight-year-old boy but when doctors closely examined it, they were shocked to see that it was not a cyst but an under-developed "foetus".

At present the boy is recovering post-surgery. "It had hair, bones of skull and legs. It was developing in the cavity of the abdomen of the boy. There must be some vessels, which were feeding the foetus and supplying blood to keep it growing. It was not alive but it was a developmental abnormality in which a mass of tissue resembling a foetus forms inside the body which is known as foetus in fetu in medical terms," said Dr Sita Ram, principal and controller, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Medical College, Churu. The doctors, who performed the surgery and removed it, claimed that it was constantly growing in the abdomen. The family of the boy took him to Churu from their village Mundra eight days ago. The doctors performed test including sonography and CT scan. "We have never seen such a case before," said Ram.

He said, "Foetus in fetu happens when a woman is pregnant and post fertilization, twins are formed. But, due to certain reasons, one of them becomes parasite on the other. The parasite continuously grows inside the body of the other foetus. In this case too, the part we removed from the boy's abdomen was foetus in fetu, which was a parasite and was growing in the abdomen of the boy. But, it was not developed in the form of the baby." The surgery continued for six hours. Following the surgery, the boy was shifted to intensive care unit.

