A baby girl born to mainland parents in Kowloon's Queen Elizabeth Hospital several years ago was at first believed to have two tumors in her abdomen, but doctors later discovered that these were the fetuses of twin babies, the Hong Kong Medical Journal has just reported.
The fetuses were at eight to ten weeks' gestation at the time of delivery, and each had four limbs as well as a spine, rib cage, intestines and brain tissue. One weighed 14.2 grams and the other 9.3 grams.
Three weeks later, the girl underwent surgery to remove the anomaly, which is known as "fetus in fetu" and occurs in only one in every half a million births globally. Only 200 cases of fetus in fetu have ever been reported.
Eight days after the operation was successfully completed, the girl could at least leave the hospital.
Experts are still unsure of what causes the rare condition, but some believe it could have been linked to the mother having had multiple abortions performed.
[Images via IBT]
0 User Comments