A baby girl was born through caesarian section at Ram Snehi Hospital in northern India last month. At first, the doctors told the parents that they were going to have twins. But when they opened up her belly, they only saw one tiny baby with a head that was growing out of its side, The Sun reports.
The baby, who hasn’t been named yet, was scheduled to have a surgery to remove the parasitic twin who’s only source of sustainment is the blood that was supposed to be the baby’s. Although the parents were concerned at first, doctors assured them that the baby will survive the operation.
The parasitic twin had a pair of eyes, a nose, and lips on its head. The head protruded from the baby’s stomach and almost hanging from the girl’s chest. Doctors immediately sent this case for surgery at JK Lone Hospital in Jaipur which is more than 300 miles away. A team of surgeons had to work together to help save the baby.
Dr. Pravin Mathur, professor and head of the hospital’s pediatric surgery, said, “This is one of the rarest cases of parasitic twin. It was a complicated case as the twins shared blood vessels. They were joined from the thorax and shared common vessels for blood supply from heart and liver.”
The parents were initially told that they were about to have twins during one of their regular ultrasound appointments. However, doctors didn’t realize that the other twin was only parasitic. A parasitic twin is connected to the actual infant but not completely formed and didn’t qualify as a viable fetus in the first place.
The unidentified young couple, who work on a farm, didn’t have a clue if their newborn infant would survive the operation.
Dr. Mathur said, “The parents told us the mother had undergone sonography and other tests but were not told about carrying an underdeveloped twin. They were shattered when they saw the baby. We had to convince them to give us a nod for the surgery to save their daughter’s life.
The baby had chances of catching septicemia. We immediately conducted CT Scans, blood tests and X-rays and operated on the child.”
The hospital was kind enough not to send the family the hospital bill for the whole surgery. The baby was reported to be in good condition. The occurrence of a parasitic twin usually happens when twin embryos had already started development in the womb after failing to properly split.
