E-Paper
Foetus removed from belly of child
ANOMALIES INCOMPATIBLE with life led to the third known case in India of a foetus in fetu being recovered from its host that had already taken birth being reported at Gokuldas Hospital in the City yesterday. The doctors who performed the surgery wish to publish the rare occurrence in journals of medical science.
ANOMALIES INCOMPATIBLE with life led to the third known case in India of a foetus in fetu being recovered from its host that had already taken birth being reported at Gokuldas Hospital in the City yesterday. The doctors who performed the surgery wish to publish the rare occurrence in journals of medical science.
According to sources a three and a half month old boy Harshit Patidar was referred to the private hospital after suffering from continued abdominal problems. The boy had started refusing food, was facing problem in passing urine and stool and was prone to vomiting. After X-ray, a lump was found near his retroperitoneum (behind intestinal cavity).
In order to ascertain the kind of lump and whether it was some kind of tumour, sonographies were conducted revealing the presence of an undeveloped foetus.
Dr Sushil Jain clarifying the abnormal instance of the boy carrying a three and a half week foetus, said that the foetus in fetu was 15 weeks old from the period of conception, while the host was 15 month old from the time of conception. The foetus in fetu, further, was anencephalhytic, that is it had an undeveloped brain.
The investigation on the foetus in fetu revealed that it was ectodermal, meaning it had hairs, a developing vertebral column, developed bones of thigh and hip. Despite having grown to this stage the foetus could not develop further due to unknown causes and the how and why of it remain unexplained in medical knowledge.
Within 12 weeks of conception the foetus develops upto five mm or 1.5 cm and takes shape to become a fully formed human being. Medicos put forward different theories to explain this rare phenomenon without a unanimous agreement ever being reached on any of them.
According to one theory after fusion of cells a zygote divides in some instances into two, causing birth of twins but one of these comes to merge with the other and remains inside the first.
Till date 87 such cases have been reported the world over with 11 occurring in Asia and this was the third in India. Patidar was operated upon by Dr Jain, Dr N Patidar with Dr Ashok Kasat being the anaesthetic and is said to be fully normal.
The foetus in fetu had started pressurising the left kidney of the boy, blocking renal and bowel movement and if he had not been operated upon in time he could have suffered permanent damage to the kidney.
However, doctors say that non-detection of the same could not have occurred as complications would have arisen at some point of time leading to the discovery of the foetus in fetu.
The case differs from ‘terratoma’ protrusion of an extra organ or limb like calves being born with three eyes, one leg jutting from the posterior and so on in the sense that here the structure does not develop simply onto a limb but a foetus with the capacity of having become a human being.
