The incredibly rare condition has only been reported in medical history about 200 times – and the causes are not known but are thought to be related to the development of identical twins in the womb
A baby boy had the foetuses of two of his siblings removed from his stomach after he was born. The extraordinarily rare case was discovered when a 32-year-old woman visited her local hospital for a routine scan while 35 weeks pregnant.
Doctors were shocked to find “an additional structure containing bones” in the unborn baby’s abdomen after previous scans produced normal results. Tests revealed two malformed foetuses were inside the foetus’ stomach.
The incredibly rare condition, called ‘foetus in fetu’, has only been recorded in medical history around 200 times. It is thought this case is even rarer due to the fact multiple foetuses were found.
Thankfully, the woman delivered her son on February 1 at about 35 weeks pregnant without issue. The two foetuses, which had stopped growing at some point, were removed from the baby’s stomach.
Local news reports say the baby and mother are healthy but the two foetuses were too undeveloped to survive.
Dr Prasad Agarwal, who conducted the scan, told said: “I was lucky and vigilant enough to notice something very unusual with this baby, grossly normal growing foetus with a few bones and a foetus-like structure in its abdomen.
“It struck me immediately that this is not normal. It was “foetus in fetu,” one of the rarest cases in the world.”
The causes of foetus in fetu is unclear but there is a theory that it occurs during development of identical twins inside the womb.
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