In a rare medical anomaly, doctors in Maharashtra’s Buldhana successfully removed two foetuses from inside a newborn baby.
The condition, known as ‘foetus-in-fetu,’ was identified last month in a 32-year-old woman during a routine check-up. She was placed under observation, and a C-section delivery was performed now. Following the birth, doctors conducted surgery on the newborn to remove the undeveloped foetuses.
Both the mother and baby are in stable condition and recovering well, doctors confirmed.
A team of five doctors carried out the surgery, which lasted about 1 to 1.5 hours. While an earlier sonography had detected only one foetus, the doctors were shocked to find two inside the newborn. The foetuses had developed hands and legs but lacked heads, they added.
According to Dr Usha Gajbhiye, who led the surgery, said such cases occur in approximately one in 500,000 births. The anomaly was not detected in earlier scans due to its extreme rarity and unpredictable nature.
This congenital condition has been documented in only around 200 cases worldwide, with just 15–20 reported in India.
While the exact cause remains unclear, experts believe it results from an abnormality during the development of identical twins. Rather than a true twin pregnancy, it is classified as a developmental anomaly, as the parasitic twin cannot survive independently.
Inputs by Zaka Khan