This new born was 'pregnant' with his own brother

The doctors at Bilal Hospital in Mumbra, Mumbai were surprised to find that a baby was 'pregnant' with his brother. It took some time for them to discover that the half formed baby, inside his brother's stomach, was complete with a brain, arms and legs. 

It was the radiologist who spotted the abnormality during a routine scan of the mother, in early July. However, the doctors decided to allow the mother to give birth to the baby in a normal way. 

Nine days later, the 19-year-old mother gave birth to a boy, and doctors scanned the baby and found that another baby was hiding behind his abdomen. "The twin was inside the fetal sac of the newborn. We could see the upper and lower limbs of the fetus," radiologist Bhavana Thorat said. 

"The unique thing was that the fetus had a tiny head with a brain inside, but did not have a skull bone," she said. 

The doctors then successfully operated and removed the mass which was a male about 7cm long weighing around 150 gm.

"It was like a parasite lying behind the stomach of the baby and deriving its nutrition from the host. Both were getting nutrition from a single cord," gynaecologist Neena Nichlani said.

The situation is suspected to be a twin pregnancy called 'Fetus in fetu', one of the less than 200 cases reported around the world and the first in India.

"It's a case of monozygotic twin pregnancy where two fetus share single placenta and one wraps itself around and envelops the other. The parasite fetus can be implanted in the abdomen, as in this case, skull or even tail bone of the other. At times, such a situation might even lead to the death of the host," she said,

The 19-year-old mother and new born is healthy and doing well. 
 

• Fetus in fetu
• twin pregnancy
• parasite baby