9-year-old girl's twin is found inside her stomach

[Ban Hammer 13,347]

ATHENS, Greece - A 9-year-old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday.

Doctors at Larissa General Hospital examined the girl and surgically removed a growth they later discovered was an embryo more than two inches long.

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

The girl has made a full recovery, he said.

Andreas Markou, head of the hospital's pediatric department, said the embryo was a formed fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord.

Markou said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births.

The girl's family did not want to be identified, hospital officials said.

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[Niels Bohr 72]

It's normal for things like this to happen.

[Jenn! 918]

Wow. Was it alive?

I'm having a hard time understanding this.

[almaty 19]

hmmmmm...sounds like a plot for stephen king...the dark side

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Sister!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

They've actually found this is full grown adults - there was a documentary a while back about a man in his 30's from rural india who was admitted to hospital with a massive growth in his belly.

The doctors assumed it was stomach cancer - but what they discovered was that his twin had essentially been living (though obviously not in the true sense of the word) in his stomach all his life and had become some sort of parasite.

The documentary showed what was removed from his stomach - it weighed around 20lbs and looked like something between a sunday roast and the alien facehugger.

Edited May 15, 2008 by Number 6

[Nagishkaw 510]

It's normal for things like this to happen.

Markou said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births.

[msu17 0]

Wow. Was it alive?

I'm having a hard time understanding this.

Usually known as a teratoma. Not usually a fully formed fetus, usually just some hair, teeth etc. There's a lot more weird stuff than this out there!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Wow. Was it alive?

I'm having a hard time understanding this.

Usually known as a teratoma. Not usually a fully formed fetus, usually just some hair, teeth etc. There's a lot more weird stuff than this out there!

As opposed to Quato in Total Recall

[Niels Bohr 72]

In Cambodia, there were twins that was born. One had no skeleton, the other had it. The one without skeleton died, obviously.

[Sinergy 3]

It's normal for things like this to happen.

Markou said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births.

Meaning no this is not something that normally occurs

[Lisax 0]

I've heard of this a few times before, is quite disturbing, but not unknown. I saw a program where a boy, about the same age, in Iran or somewhere like that, had his twin almost fully grown in his abdomen, but the fetus wasn't really alive, it was only alive because it lived in the boy for so long, once they removed it, it died.

[Mononoke28 135]

Augh... that just made me sick. =X

Diana

[panamania79 2]

Wow. Was it alive?

I'm having a hard time understanding this.

Me too,it sounds like a Guiness World Record episode.Remember the first one with the lady with a 200lb. tumor ?

[panamania79 2]

Sister!

now that's really gross !