A toddler from Madhya Pradesh had a swelling in her stomach, which turned out to be a fetus weighing around 400 grams. In a rare surgery performed in Gujarat last month, an undeveloped embryo was successfully removed from the body of an 18-month-old baby girl, who had a rare medical condition called ‘Fetus in Fetu,’ India Today reported. 

Three months ago, the toddler’s parents noticed swelling in her abdominal area and rushed her to a hospital in Madhya Pradesh. 

“The couple got worried due to the swelling of her stomach. The CT scan revealed the presence of the fetus,” a senior doctor of the medical team told the Times of India. 

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In the next month, the parents consulted several doctors in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan but couldn’t find the right treatment. They then read about a similar case on social media and reached Ahmedabad Civil Hospital with a hope that their daughter would be treated. 

“As soon as we got to know about the pediatrics department of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Twitter, we brought her here,” the child’s father told India Today.

The child underwent a surgery on July 22 and the fetus, which was pressing one of her kidneys and renal vessels, was removed. The girl has since been discharged from the hospital and is recovering.

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Fetus in fetu is a condition in which a developmentally abnormal fetus is found inside its healthy twin’s body. This usually happens when one of the babies in the uterus is malformed and grows in another’s body. 

“Fetus-in-fetus is a rare congenital abnormality having the prevalence of about one in 5 lakh live births. Across the world, there might be about 200 cases reported in the literature. For us, it is the third such case in over three decades,” the senior doctor told the Times of India.