A 32-year-old pregnant woman in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district has been detected with ‘fetus in fetu’, an extremely rare condition in which a malformed fetus is located within the body of another fetus, an official said.
The rare congenital anomaly was detected a few days back when the woman, who is 35 weeks pregnant, went to Buldhana District Women’s Hospital for a regular check-up, he said.
Doctors came to know about the condition during the woman’s sonography at the hospital, the official said.
Obstetrician and gynaecologist at the hospital, Dr Prasad Agarwal, told reporters on Tuesday that ‘fetus in fetu’ is one of the rarest cases—one in five lakh.
Only about 200 such cases have been reported (across the world) till now, that too after delivery, including 10-15 cases in India, he said.
“But I was lucky and vigilant enough to notice something very unusual with this baby, which is almost of 35 weeks, grossly normal growing fetus with a few bones and fetus-like structure in its abdomen,” he said.
“It struck me immediately that this is not normal. It was ‘fetus in fetu’, one of the rarest cases in the world. We had asked for a second opinion and the case was confirmed by radiologist Dr Shruti Thorat,” he said.
The woman has been referred to a medical facility in neighbouring Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for a safe delivery and further procedure, the hospital authorities said.
