A 2 year-old boy from Antique province in the Philippines have a fetus in his abdominal cavity. The parents of the boy are seeking financial assistance for the operation to remove the fetus in the body of their son.
Fetus in Fetu is a developmental anomaly that wherein a mass with the likeness of a fetus forms inside the body. Other description is that it is an imperfectly formed twin, incapable of independent existence that is formed in the body of the normal twin.
According to the attending physician of the boy, Dr. Romelia Mendoza, the child has been diagnosed last year with the condition. He is now confined at West Visayas State University Medical Center.
The boy was first seen to have a kidney disease because of the sudden growth of his belly. The parents were shocked that his supposedly twin was inside his small and fragile body.
The boy would have been operated on last year. However, they were included in the victims of Typhoon Haiyan that struck the country November last year. The boy is now scheduled to undergo an operation on October 20.
The pediatrician said that the condition might have occurred during the period of cell division on the first trimester of pregnancy. There are two theories in the emergence of such rare condition. One is that as the fetus grows inside the womb of the body, it envelopes its twin. The second theory states that the mass might be a highly developed teratoma.
The fetus inside has no heartbeat, pulse, brain, lungs and gastrointestinal tract. However, it has a working blood supply system that gets the nutrients from the normal twin.
The life of the normal twin is in danger as long as its dependent twin is inside his body. All nutrients are absorbed by it and as it grows, it might penetrate other parts of the host's body.