Peruvian doctors are preparing to operate on a 3-year-old boy who has the body of his twin in his stomach. Isbac Pacunda has the bones, eyes and hair of his would-be twin in his stomach and must be removed through surgery.
A plastic surgeon told reporters that the surgery will take place at the Las Mercedes Hospital in Chiclayo where 12 doctors will remove the pound an a half fetus from the child’s stomach. Doctors suspect the fetus is nine inches long. Known as the condition fetus-in-fetu, this is a rare condition that only occurs every 500,000 live births. Fetus-in-fetu is described as a condition where tissue that resembles a fetus is found within the stomach of a human being. Though some suspect that it is a form of termatoma (a type of tumor), doctors believe it occurs when the embryo does not develop correctly inside the mother.
This condition proves that twins must develop in the womb of the mother. It occurs after the same egg splits, creating twin fetuses. If the egg doesn’t split entirely, conjoined twins form, connected at one part of the body, such as the stomach or brain. In the fetus-in-fetu condition, the twins do not separate as they should as eggs and one envelops the other during a major development stage. The twin then lives off the other like a parasite.
The condition is so rare that less than 100 instances are documented. It is most rare to find a fetus-in-fetu condition with adult male because this conditions is detected commonly as an infant. As an adult, diagnosis begins when doctors believe that it’s a tumor. In the case of Sanju Bhagat, the adult was having difficulty breathing, so Bhagat was rushed to the hospital where doctors removed what they thought was a tumor pushing against his diaphragm. Doctors were horrified and shocked to find a mutated body with long fingernails and bones. The twin could not survive on its own, but doctors had never seen anything like it before.
Doctors are confident that the procedure to remove the fetus from Pacunda will not be difficult. ABC News spoke with Dr. Jonathan Fanaroff at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland who said that the twin couldn’t’ survive because it was inside the boy’s stomach, not the mother’s womb. He suspects that the surgery needed to remove the fetus from his stomach is easier than the surgery needed to separate conjoined twins.