| (http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/abc_fetus_080515_mn.jpg) | Doctors in Greece Thursday removed from the belly of a 9-year-old girl what they believe was her embryonic twin absorbed into her abdomen when they were both in the womb. Andreas Markou, head of the pediatric department at Larissa General Hospital in Athens, said the 2-inch-long embryo removed from the girl's belly was a fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord, according to The Associated Press. It is phenomenon called "fetus in fetu," or baby within a baby, said Jay Grosfeld, a professor of pediatric surgery at Indiana University who has written about the "exceptionally rare" condition. In the first month of pregnancy while developing in the womb, Grosfeld said, one twin "enters into the other through the umbilical cord where it assumes a parasitic position in regard to the host baby. After birth, it presents as an abdominal mass." In 1999, a man from Nagpur, India, was treated for a mass in his belly that had been painful for years and had advanced to the point that he appeared to be nine months pregnant. Sanju Bhagat, then 36, was rushed to the hospital one evening and doctors removed a fetus -- his twin -- from his abdomen. Fetus in fetu in is one of several conditions that can result in an embryo or embryolike mass developing in one's body, doctors told ABC News. |