Doctors in China had no choice but to perform surgery on a toddler when they found a fetus inside her brain.
An article published in the American Journal of Case Reports on 21 June 2024 reported the case of a one-year-old girl who suffered from a fetus in fetu (FIF), or a parasitic fetus.
According to the article, the “rare malformation” can be found in unusual places such as the skull or the mouth.
The child had been born via cesarean delivery due to her large head circumference, which doctors had first observed during the mother’s prenatal check-up at 33 weeks.
At 12 months old, the toddler’s head measured 56.6cm in circumference.
As such, she had difficulties standing, walking, or sitting up by herself and could only tilt her head slightly.
Source: American Journal of Case Reports
Additionally, the girl was slow to develop the ability to speak and could only say the word “mum”. She also had no control over her bowels.
When doctors performed a CT scan, they found a large mass with an internal bone structure inside of the girl’s brain.
After additional tests, doctors confirmed that this was a rare case of FIF where a malformed fetus resides inside its normally-developed twin.
Source: American Journal of Case Reports
According to the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, FIF is exceedingly rare and occurs in only 1 in 500,000 live births.
After additional tests, doctors performed a surgical operation on the one-year-old girl to remove the fetus inside her head.
The team was able to completely remove the fetus which had developed multiple organs including a spine, eyes, a mouth, and an arm.
Source: American Journal of Case Reports
However, the one-year-old girl never regained consciousness after the surgery.
She suffered from multiple seizures that were described as “difficult to control” and passed away 12 days after the operation.
In a similar case from October 2024, doctors discovered two twins inside the abdomen of a three-day-old girl in India.
According to the Times of India, the hospital immediately began a procedure to remove the twins to save the girl but was unsuccessful.
Also read: Pregnant SQ321 passenger faces difficult decision to undergo surgery which may harm fetus
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Featured image adapted from American Journal of Case Reports.
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