Baby Needs Operation To Remove Her Twin Inside Her Body

Dec 01, 2019 by apost team

It's hard to imagine giving birth by cesarean section to a premature baby only to find out that your baby needs to receive a C-section because she has another fetus in her body. It might sound like the plot of a science fiction film, but this actually happened to Monica Vega of Barranquilla, Colombia. Due to an unusual complication known as "fetus in fetu," the baby girl, named Itzmara, was carrying a baby of her own because her twin ended up inside her body.

How could this happen? Fetus in fetu occurs in twins when the embryo divides incorrectly. The division of twins usually occurs during the first week of pregnancy. For Siamese twins that are born joined together, the division occurs in the second week.

When fetus in fetu occurs, the embryos divide after 17 days of the pregnancy. As a result, one of the twins remains within the body of its sibling. It is then considered by doctors to be a "parasitic twin" as reported here at The Sun.

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This only happens in one out of a million pregnancies. It is nearly impossible to detect this until after the twins are born; however, in the case of Monica's twins, they knew about the complication before she gave birth.

When she was seven months pregnant, her ultrasound scan revealed that there were two umbilical cords. One of the cords was connected to baby Itzmara, and there was a second cord connected to a growing mass inside of Itzmara.

When doctors made this startling discovery, they concluded that the delivery needed to be performed immediately via cesarean section.

Monica and her doctor, Miguel Parra, both decided that it was the right thing to do in the situation. Monica was informed that her baby had a parasitic twin growing inside of her. If the mass kept growing, it would probably cause too much damage to baby Itzmara's internal organs.

After Monica gave birth, doctors had to perform a C-section on her premature baby within 24 hours, which was a risky procedure. The baby must have had capable surgeons because she survived a very dangerous procedure, and she is recovering well.

It is unfortunate that Itzmara's twin could not be saved, but there is no way that it could have been born alive because it was too malformed. It didn't have a brain or a heart, so it couldn't have lived. It was alive inside of Itzmara because it was being fed nutrients from Itzmara's heart.

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