Graphic Photos: How 3.5kg ‘Parasitic Twin’ Was Discovered In A 1-Year-Old

A 3.5 kg ‘parasitic twin’ has been removed from the stomach of 1-year-old baby Nisha, after her parents rushed her to hospital.

According to Mirror, the toddler’s panicked parents took her to the hospital after they noticed she was having problems with her breathing. She was neither feeding well nor gaining weight and had a swollen stomach.

Doctors performed an ultrasound on the child and discovered a huge cystic lesion occupying the whole of the abdomen, which was displacing her organs to the right corner of her stomach cavity with her left kidney completely plastered to the cystic mass and her left colon, spleen, pancreas and bowels were pushed into the corner of her abdomen.

Sumathi, the little girl’s mother  and her father Raju, from Mettupalayam, India, had no idea how severe her condition was.

The incredibly rare condition occurs in just one in 10 million patients.

Doctors at Sri Ganapathy Krishna Hospital said:

“It was only after the child began having issues breathing and having food and the stomach had grown to a noticeably abnormal size did they go to a private doctor in Erode.”

Niche was referred to Paediatric and Laparoscopic surgeon Dr D Vijayagiri with what was thought to be a large cyst. He later diagnosed her with foetus-in-fetu – where a parasitic twin resides inside the host twin and feeds off their blood supply.

Dr D Vijayagiri revealed:

“The surgery to perform is a highly complicated one and technically demanding because the parasitic twin will be densely adherent to the host organs.”

A 2-hour successful surgery was carried out on the tot. Surgeons carefully dissected the cyst and were able to remove it completely.

All of Nisha’s organs were also moved to their correct places and she is now recovering well under the watchful eye of her parents.

There are several theories exploring the origin of parasitic twins, which include that the mass starts as a normal foetus but becomes enveloped inside its twin in Utero.

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