By Promise Eze
A foetus, which was about four inches long, was surgically removed from the skull of its one-year-old twin sister in China.
According to DailyMail, doctors said the fetus had developed upper limbs, bones and even fingernails, meaning it likely continued growing for months while inside its sibling in the womb.
The foetus was discovered after the parents took their daughter to the hospital for scans because she had an enlarged head and motor skills problems.
Dr Zongze Li from Huashan Hospital, Fudan University who treated the girl said that “the intracranial foetus-in-foetu is proposed to arise from unseparated blastocysts.”
CT scans revealed her unborn sibling was pressed against her brain.
Fetus-in-fetu is the medical term for the rare phenomenon that sees twins fuse together in the womb, and one develops physically inside another.
Doctors said it survived for a year after birth because it shared a blood supply with its sibling.
She also had hydrocephalus, a condition in which fluid accumulates deep within the brain, causing an enlarged head, extreme sleepiness, and seizures.
