In today’s episode of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, an unnamed 15-year-old boy from Sungai Petani, Kedah had a dead twin body removed from his own. Omg.
The teenager apparently unknowingly had a twin living INSIDE his body for the past 15 years!
Since young, he has often complained of abdominal pains and bloating. However, no matter which doctor they went to, they all could not find the source of his pain, The Sun reported.
That was, until the family brought the teen to Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital. The doctors initially suspected it could have been cancer and performed a CT scan to locate the possible tumour.
However, the discovery was shocking even to the medical world as the doctors found another spine and huge intra-abdominal mass that was 23.8cm long, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) read.
The BMJ is a great source among most medical students, particularly in the Great Britain. The site provides case journals, journal articles, research articles, and other vital healthcare-related articles.
Turns out, it was the teen’s unborn twin. For a while, the deformed fetus was living and feeding off the teenager like a parasite.
An excerpt from the journal stated that the fetus actually developed quite a bit, though it was a non-viable baby. This means that the fetus could not live independently as it had no mouth, umbilical cord or placenta.
“Components in favour of a fetus that were seen within the mass include a deformed skull, vertebral body and long bones.”
As the doctors performed surgery to remove the little body, they found that the fetus, which weighed 1.6kg, even had hair and a penis.
Source: KL Coconuts
The doctors’ current concern is the complete removal of the dead twin. Though the surgery was successful, there could be a chance for complications to occur later.
The leader of the surgery, Dr Rashide Yaacob, told the media,
“There is a possibility of malignant recurrence if any of the tissue is not completely excised.
“The operation to remove the fetus in fetu is a challenging operation as the mass is highly vascular with multiple feeding vessels.
“The big size of the fetus has made surgery more difficult as there is a high possibility of injuring surrounding structures.”
The patient has recovered well from the operation and the body of the unborn baby has been returned to the family for a private funeral.
It is shocking how the teenager could live with such abdominal pains throughout his whole life and had a baby right inside his body for that long too. Thankfully, the problem was discovered and resolved.
Better late than never, right?
Kudos to the surgeons who performed the amazing surgery as well!
Also read: Uber Driver Working 2 Jobs Until 1AM Daily Allegedly Passed Away Due to Overwork
