14 DAY TRIAL // Not very long ago, doctors working at a hospital in China found themselves lost for words when they became acquainted with a little girl who had a third arm growing out of her back.
As one can easily guess, this medical condition took its toll on the girl's overall wellbeing, meaning that her spine developed abnormal curvatures, and her quality of life was greatly diminished.
Specialists explain that this third arm belonged to an unborn twin, who for one reason or another failed in developing properly while sharing the womb with this girl and thus got engulfed by her.
This condition has been documented before, and doctors usually refer to it as “fetus in fetu,” Daily Mail reports.
Interestingly enough, further investigation revealed that, apart from the arm, which was quite visible, this 11-year-old's back also had a breast and a foreign shoulder blade attached to it. Moreover, the arm itself ended in two fingers.
Needless to say, soon after Professor Baogan Peng, presently working with the General Hospital of Armed Police Force in Beijing, first drew attention to this Chinese girl and the rare medical condition she was suffering from, several other physicians from various parts of the world decided to get involved and try to help her.
“Based on physical examination and imaging findings, a diagnosis of fetus in fetu was made preoperatively,” this specialist explained.
Professor Baogan Peng says that, thanks to their carefully planning and carrying out the surgery, the 11-year-old girl is now finally free of her parasitic twin.
Despite the fact that this was not the first time when doctors had to figure out a way of separating individuals from their so-called parasitic twins, it seems no previous medical records speak of such unborn babies being attached to their brother or sister's back.
Thus, most of them are to be found in the living child's abdomen, whereas some get attached to the skull.