A BABY girl survived being born with her own twin growing inside her tiny belly.
The little girl, called Itzamara, was born on February 22 in Colombia in an incredibly rare example of a “foetus-in-foetu” birth, first described in 1808 but rarely seen since.
Central European News
Medics successfully performed surgery to remove the 45-millimeter, 14-gram malformed twin as it did not have a brain or a beating heart, according to local media.
The baby’s mother Monica Vega revealed that doctors detected something inside her baby’s abdomen when she was almost seven months pregnant.
According to Los Informantes, it was the baby girl’s twin growing inside her tummy in its own amniotic sac, with an umbilical cord and arms and legs.
Doctor Miguel Parra said he believes it is the first time an example of foetus-in-fetu has been diagnosed during pregnancy.
“I have never heard of anything like this in my entire life. I really did not expect this to happen,” he said.
Doctors decided to deliver the baby girl in the 37th week so that the foetus inside her would not continue to grow and potentially affect her organs.
The newborn was delivered successfully and is reportedly in a stable condition after undergoing surgery to remove her malformed sibling.
According to local media, the situation occurs once in every 200,000 pregnancies.
If the embryo divides in the second week, the children will probably become conjoined.
In this case, the embryo split after the 17th day.
The baby girl is currently recovering in hospital and is said to be in a healthy condition.
TWINCREDIBLE What is ‘foetus in foetu’ condition?
Foetus in foetu is a rare condition that has been defined as the presence of one of the twins in the body of the other.
The malformed and parasitic foetus is located in the body of its twin.
The anomaly was first defined in early nineteenth century.
Central European News
Central European News
Central European News
