Like a living Russian doll, this newborn held more than a few shocking surprises inside.
Doctors in India were flabbergasted after extracting eight embryos from a 21-day-old baby girl — which marked the most ever found in a newborn.
The extraordinary phenomenon occurred on Oct. 10 after a baby was born with an abnormally swollen stomach at a private hospital in Ramgarh district in the state of Jharkhand, Jam Press reported.
The girl’s parents were initially concerned that the growth was a tumor — a diagnosis that seemed to be supported by investigative CT scans.
She was subsequently transferred to the Rani Children Hospital & Research Centre in the city of Ranchi, where a team, led by Dr. Mohammed Imran, discovered that wasn’t the case.
Instead, she suffered from fetus in fetu (FIF, a “rare congenital anomaly” in which a “malformed and parasitic fetus” forms in the body of its twin. This exceedingly rare condition occurs in about one in 500,000 births, with only 100 or so cases confirmed in history).
This infant’s case was particularly unique as she harbored a record eight underdeveloped fetuses in her abdominal cavity. Doctors said it was the most ever removed from a baby with FIF, which generally doesn’t involve more than a few extra embryos.
The child’s parents initially thought she had a tumor. Jam Press/Rare Shot News
The team of surgeons poses with the patient. Jam Press/Rare Shot News
Generally fetus-in-fetu patients only harbor several parasitic twins. Jam Press Vid/NewslionsAfter keeping the young patient under observation for 21 days, medics finally removed the sibling stowaways during a 1.5-hour procedure.
Thankfully, the baby girl is currently recovering well following surgery.
