Thane doctors save infant with fetus in belly

In a rare medical case, a two-month-old infant carrying the foetus of its malformed twin in its belly was successfully operated upon by doctors from Kaushalya hospital on Friday. Ishita Ramsurat Gupta, the first child of a Bhiwandi based couple is under observation at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, after doctors cut open her abdomen and removed a 500-gm tumor, following a two and-a-half-hour operation by Dr Laxmikant Kasat and anesthetist Dr Sandhya Bua and Dr Jayanti Bhate. “The child is safe and surgery relieved her of irritability and pain, which was due to the presence of the malformed foetus. One in five lakh births is with a parasitic twin,’’ Dr Kasat said. He said the infant’s 26-year-old mother conceived twins but the growth of one stopped and it died at an early stage of pregnancy. The other fetus grew normally and there was a merging of body parts; a condition called ‘foetusin fetu’. Dr Gupta said it is generally referred to as a parasitic twin which has skin, hair, spine and thigh bones but without any brain. In this case, the thigh bone, vertebral bone and limbs were evident but a malformed tumor had to be removed to save the infant. “With prayers on my lips, I entered the operation theatre and removed the tumor, which occupied 60% of the abdomen. The baby will lead a normal life,’’ said Dr Kasat