A recent report highlights the extraordinary case of a baby born in Hong Kong who was discovered to be pregnant with her own siblings at the time of her birth.
The condition, known as fetus-in-fetu, is an exceptionally rare phenomenon, occurring in just about 1 in every 500,000 births, leaving doctors perplexed about its origins.
Dr. Draion Burch, an obstetrician and gynecologist, known as Dr. Drai, remarked, “Weird things happen early, early in the pregnancy that we just don’t understand. This is one of those medical mysteries.”
The World Health Organization categorizes the tiny fetus within an infant as a type of teratoma or tumor rather than a typically developing fetus.
However, doctors involved in the case speculate that, instead of a teratoma, the tiny fetuses could be remnants of sibling twins that were absorbed during the pregnancy.
The newborn, initially suspected to have a tumor based on prenatal ultrasound, was referred to Dr. Yu Kai-man, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong.
Surgical intervention revealed two tiny fetuses between the baby girl’s liver and kidney.
The fetuses, weighing 0.3 ounces (9.3 grams) and 0.5 ounces (14.2 grams), corresponding to about 8 and 10 weeks’ gestation, each had an umbilical cord linked to a placenta-like mass in the girl’s abdomen.
Although the baby girl was clearly too young to have conceived the fetuses herself, medical experts suggest she might have initially been one of triplets.
For unknown reasons, the two smaller fetuses were absorbed into the body of the surviving child during the pregnancy.
While the absorbed fetuses were likely alive and growing when incorporated, their development couldn’t progress normally due to the lack of essential factors such as placental flow, according to Dr. Burch.
The case remains a medical mystery, showcasing the complexities and uncertainties surrounding early pregnancy anomalies.
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