Story at a glance:
- A fetus in fetu occurs once in every 500,000 births.
- Top experts performed an operation to remove two sacs out of the girl’s stomach.
- The baby girl survived and is expected to make a full recovery
A newborn baby shocked doctors after an X-ray revealed she carried a twin fetus inside her stomach.
The case, known as a fetus in fetu, occurs once in every 500,000 births, according to The Times of Israel.
America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.
Doctors first noticed the baby girl had an enlarged stomach when they performed a late-stage ultrasound on the mother, The New York Post reports.
When the baby was born, doctors performed an X-ray and other tests, discovering that she harbored a partially developed embryo with some bones and a heart.
“We were surprised to discover that it was an embryo,” Omer Globus, director of neonatology at Assuta, told the Times of Israel.
Top experts performed an operation to remove two sacs out of the girl’s stomach.
“We think that there was more than one there, and we are still checking that,” he said.
The baby girl survived and is expected to make a full recovery, Globus said.
The girl is already living at home with her mother and three other siblings.
As to how this could have happened, Globus says rare occurrences such as these start off as twins but then one of the embryos is absorbed by the other.
“It happens as part of the fetal development process when there are cavities that close during development and one of the embryos enters such a space,” he said. “The fetus inside partially develops but does not live and remains there.”
READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA
YOUR YOGA TOP COULD SOON MEASURE HOW WELL YOU ARE MOVING
MICROGRAVITY IN SPACE WEAKENS OUR IMMUNE SYSTEMS: STUDY
RESEARCHERS ARE ONE STEP CLOSER TO COMPUTERS THAT CAN TEACH US ABOUT OURSELVES
IN AMAZING FIRST, PARALYZED MAN IS ABLE TO USE HIS BRAIN TO WRITE
RESEARCHERS FINE TUNE A ‘BIONIC EYE’ FOR THOSE WHO LOST THEIR SIGHT
RESEARCHERS MAKE SUTURES INSPIRED BY HUMAN TENDONS
changing america copyright.
