Two-year-old boy from Antique has fetus inside stomach

Doctors have found a fetus inside a two-year-old boy’s stomach.

Parents of the child suffering from the rare abnormal condition, fetus in fetu, are seeking for medicines as well as financial support to cover for the child’s operation. Due to his condition, the boy is having difficulty breathing and walking.

Although the boy was diagnosed in July last year, he was not able to undergo surgery because his family was victimised by supertyphoon Yolanda in November last year.

Dr. Romelia Mendoza, the attending physician and pediatrician of the boy in West Visayas State University Medical Center explained that the fetus inside the child’s stomach has no heartbeat.

When we say fetus in fetu, it doesn’t mean that the fetus inside the kid’s stomach is alive. Based on the CT scan last year, it was by calcification that the fetus was formed…There is no fetal heartbeat based on ultrasound,

Mendoza also said that they are already preparing the child for his surgery scheduled on Monday, October 20.

According to the father of the child, they had the boy checked up last year after his stomach started swelling. Initially, they thought he had a kidney problem.

What is fetus in fetu?

Fetus in fetu is an abnormal condition occurring early within pregnancy in which a fetus develops inside the body of the other twin. The absorbed fetus gets its twin’s blood supply in order to survive, making it act like a parasite to its host twin.

An extremely unique condition, it only occurs 1 in every 500,000 births.  Fetus in fetu is usually discovered shortly after the host twin is born. However, there are cases in which the condition is only detected in adulthood or even death.

An interesting case: Adult discovery

In 1999, Sanju Bhagat, a 36-year-old man from Nagpur, India was rushed to hospital to undergo surgery for what doctors thought was a tumor. Bhagat’s stomach was so swollen that he appeared nine months pregnant.

Sanju Bhagat
Featured image: http://sanatate.bzi.ro

To their surprise, the surgeons found something else inside the belly of the man.

According to one report: “He [the surgeon] just put his hand inside and he said there are a lot of bones inside. First one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair.”

The Indian man who lived as a host for his twin for more than three decades survived the surgery and was reportedly in good health.

Souce: www.thedailypedia.com