Doctors find dead foetus of twin in stomach of boy who complained of pain and bloating

Stories of twins born attached to each other or an undeveloped twin growing out of a child’s body have been reported across the world. But in rare cases the twin stays inside the stomach of a child as a foetus.

A 15-year-old boy from Malaysia had been facing stomach pain and bloating since birth, and what doctors thought of as a tumour, turned out to be the boy’s twin. The malformed foetus with a penis and hair of its own had been leaching on his blood supply and feeding off the teenager.

The non-viable child wasn’t capable of surviving on its own and didn’t have a mouth or umbilical cord. It weighed around 1.6 kg and was found to have deformed limbs.

Doctors thought of a tumour when the boy complained about a hard mass on the central part of his abdomen. But once the CT scan showed an intra-abdominal mass with a spine developing, they ruled out cancer.

The dead foetus removed surgically was returned to the family for a private funeral as per the mother’s request.