A team of doctors were left baffled after finding a newborn baby girl had her own twin growing inside of her.
This extremely rare phenomenon is seen only about once in every 500,000 births.
The girl was born earlier this month at Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, Israel, the hospital announced on Tuesday, July 27.
Doctors said that checks and ultrasounds in the late stages of the pregnancy had already identified that the girl’s stomach was enlarged.
Then, following her natural birth, doctors carefully examined the baby girl and confirmed that there was something inside the newborn, The Times of Israel reports.
The medical team then quickly carried out further examinations including ultrasounds and an X-ray.
"We were surprised to discover that it was an embryo," Omer Globus, director of neonatology at Assuta, said.
A team of the medical centre’s doctors carried out an operation, eventually removing two similar sacs from the girl’s stomach.
"We think that there was more than one there, and we are still checking that," he said.
Two-headed snake named Ben and Jerry filmed eating two mice at the same time
Globus stressed that the remains were not a fully formed embryo, but rather an embryo that only partially developed.
Doctors were able to see some bones and a heart, he said.
"But it did not look like an embryo as you imagine it," he said.
The operation was successful and the girl is expected to make a full recovery, the doctor added.
Baby stabbed to death with girl, 2, fighting for life as cries of 'Oh My God' heard
Both the girl and her mother, who has three other children, have already been sent home.
Globus said there are a number of theories as to how such cases occur, with one being that the pregnancy starts 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."
For more incredible stories from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here
Foetus in fetu often starts as or is also called a parasitic twin.
This is when one twin stops developing but is physically attached to its other twin.
Although the underdeveloped twin has died, it ends up sharing a blood supply with its twin and embeds onto or inside its body.
Foetus in fetu is a parasitic twin that’s completely enclosed inside the body of the healthy twin, according to Healthline.
It can go undiscovered at birth and even when found, thought to be a tumour.
Source: Read Full Article