The Trouble with Tribbles Twins: Girl Born Pregnant

She had been carrying around her undeveloped twin's fetus in her stomach since birth.

Nine years old now, and the fetus was finally discovered because she was complaining of stomach pains.

Surgeons in the Greek city of Larissa discovered the six-centimetre (two inch) foetus when the young girl was brought to hospital, complaining of a stomach ache.

"They could see on the right side that her belly was swollen, but they couldn't suspect that this tumour would hide an embryo," said Iakovos Brouskelis, the hospital's director.

Surgeons removed the "tumour", which was a foetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord, and the girl has made a full recovery.

In 2003, doctors in Kazakhstan treated seven-year-old Alamjan Nematilaev, who complained that he felt something moving inside of him. When surgeons operated, they found his "twin", which had a head, hair, genitals and a partially-formed face.

It happens, apparently, in 1 in 500,000 births.

posted by Ace at 07:15 PM

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