Fetus in Fetu - Examples From History and In The Media

Examples From History and In The Media

An early example of the phenomenon was described in 1808 by George William Young.

Cases of fetus in fetu sometimes attract worldwide media attention. These cases are a small minority of the known cases and rarely overlap with cases reported in the medical literature, but they are widely accessible.

• Marina Miliou of Greece in April 1990.
• Alamjan Nematilaev was the surviving host of a fetus in fetu. In 2003, aged 7, his school physician in Kazakhstan referred him to a hospital after movements were detected in the boy's enlarged abdomen. An operation intended to remove a cyst uncovered the fetus of Alamjan's identical twin brother, which had lived as parasitic growth inside the boy throughout his entire life. The fetus was comparatively highly developed, with hair, arms, fingers, nails, legs, toes, genitals, a head, and a vague approximation of a face.

• In June 1999, the case of Sanju Bhagat a man from Nagpur, India attracted attention for the length of time (36 years) he had carried his parasitic "twin" inside his body, and the size of the growth. As Bhagat had no placenta, the growth had connected directly to his blood supply.
• In March 2006, Doctors in Pakistan removed two fetuses from inside a two-month-old baby girl.

• In November 2006, a Chilean boy in Santiago was diagnosed with fetus in fetu shortly before birth.

• In August 2007, two month old Eljie Millapes from Baguio, the Philippines, was diagnosed with fetus in fetu. The parents of Millapes were alarmed by the abnormal growth of the abdomen of their baby. Doctors later discovered that she was suffering from fetus in fetu.

• In January 2008, a two-month-old baby in Medan, Indonesia named Afiah Syafina was diagnosed with a tumor in her abdomen. An operation was done at January 19, 2008 which revealed the suspected tumor to actually be a fetus.

• In May 2008, a two-inch (5 cm) embryo was removed from the belly of a 9-year-old girl at Larissa General Hospital in Greece after she was diagnosed with a tumor on the right side of her belly. The embryo was a fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord.

• On June 30, 2008, in China, a newborn baby with this condition had an extra penis growing out of its back. Doctors spent three hours removing it, and the child was fine afterward.

• In October, 2008, a doctor in the United States removed a brain tumor from Sam Esquibel that consisted of a foot and other body parts. This may have been a case of fetus in fetu or it may have been a teratoma.

• In September 2009, one-year-old Kang Mengru from China was "pregnant" with her own twin. After 10 hours of complex surgery to remove the fetus, Kang's family was told she could return home at the end of the month. She made a full recovery.

• In August 2011, in Mansoura, Egypt, Professor Ibrahim Dawoud removed the retained twin of an 18 year old male after a three hour surgery.

• In September 2011, a 41-year-old man in Arjawinangun Public Hospital, Cirebon, Indonesia was diagnosed with a tumor in his abdomen. An operation was done at October 4, 2011, which revealed the suspected tumor to actually be a fetus.