Doctors took images of an obstruction in a boy age 15 and they determined it was a tumor. But once they went inside, it turned out to be something much, much worse. It was his twin brother, who was never born. It was leeching blood from the boy, causing him several health issues. The brother had hair, skin and distorted limbs but is nonviable since it doesn’t have a mouth and other necessary parts.
The patient, who remains anonymous, had been plagued with unbearable stomach pain and bloating since he was born – but doctors were baffled.
It was only when the Malaysian teenager sought urgent help at a local hospital that the bizarre source of his discomfort was stumbled upon.
The boy’s unborn twin, which confused doctors for a tumour, was leaching on his blood supply and feeding off him.
The malformed foetus was complete with long hair, developed male genitalia and skin covering its body when it was removed.
Surgeons at Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sungai Petani found the foetus, which weighed 3.5lbs (1.6kg) and had deformed limbs.
The non-viable baby, meaning it wasn’t capable of living independently, had no mouth, umbilical cord or placenta, they wrote in BMJ Case Reports.
They initially requested CT scans for the boy when they felt a tender, hard mass over the central part of his abdomen – a tell-tale sign of a tumour.
But when the doctors studied this sonogram and discovered the formation of a human spine, they knew that cancer could be ruled out. In the history of the world there have only been 200 cases like this and that’s why the doctors never suspected this.
