Thursday, December 18, 2008

Can't Get You Outta My Head



A warning: this is pretty gross. Stories about parasitic twins usually are.

But this isn't your average parasitic twin! In Colorado, a surgeon removed a tumor from an infant's brain. Oops, not just a tumor. There were also some body parts in there--specifically an "almost perfect" foot, along with a partially formed hand, foot, and thigh.

Ewwww. But Dr. Paul Grabb was a little gentler with the language:

"It looked like the breach delivery of a baby, coming out of the brain..To find a perfectly formed structure (like this) is extremely unique, unusual, borderline unheard of."

Ewwww again.

So this baby's super special. I sure hope his parents tell him about this when he's sixteen or so. That'll make him feel awesome.

Also, apparently this isn't a totally unheard of issue. They even have a name for it: "fetus in fetu" — in which a fetal twin begins to form within another. Talk about being close with your sibling. But it's extremely rare for this to have happened in the brain.

Feel the glow of your specialness, little baby Esquibel.

(The photo is to remind you of cute twins. Grossness over.)

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