Exceptionally rare medical anomalies keep baffling doctors and medicine experts day in and day out. One such rarest of the rare medical phenomenon has come to light recently. It is known as “fetus in fetu” and it literally means that a baby is found growing inside the womb of an unborn child. Such happenstance of congenital anomalies affects only 1 in 500,000 births and has been documented with only about 200 cases worldwide. Here’s what happened in the recent-most incidence.
A highly unusual instance of ‘fetus in fetu’ has been identified in India’s Maharashtra, where a fetus was discovered developing inside the unborn child of an 8-month pregnant woman. In this condition, a deformed fetus is found within its twin’s body. The exact cause of the condition remains undetermined, but it is believed to result from an anomaly during the development of identical twins. The ‘twin’ residing within the fetus is called a parasitic twin. The rare phenomenon has left all medical professionals intrigued.
The case was revealed when the 35-year-old pregnant woman arrived at a government hospital for a sonographic assessment eight months into her pregnancy. To the doctor’s astonishment, the examination detected another fetus residing within the fetus that the lady was carrying. The anomaly went undetected in the earlier scans the woman went through and this was because of the extreme rarity and unpredictability of the condition. “No one can even imagine that such a condition can exist,” said the woman’s gynecologist.
In such cases, the underdeveloped parasitic twin (the one inside the fetus) forms within the host twin (the actual baby)’s body during gestation. The medical team is working on this extraordinary medical case reported recently in Maharashtra. The patient has already been transferred to a specialized medical institution to ensure a secure delivery of the baby who will require specific medical attention immediately after it is ‘born’.
