A team of doctors in Gurugram has successfully performed a rare and life-saving surgery on a 20-day-old baby girl diagnosed with foetus in foetu, a condition in which malformed parasitic twins develop inside the body of the host twin. The child was admitted in July to a hospital in Gurugram after her parents noticed her swollen abdomen, irritability, and inability to feed. Medical scans revealed two abnormal masses in her abdomen, which were later identified as underdeveloped foetuses.
This unusual condition begins early in pregnancy when a malformed foetus is absorbed by its twin. Although not alive, the parasitic foetus continues to grow by drawing nutrients from the host twin, earning it the name “parasitic twin.” In this case, the mother was carrying triplets, but two foetuses developed inside the surviving infant’s abdomen. When admitted, the baby was dehydrated and malnourished,…
