Two foetuses successfully excised from 3-day-old child’s abdomen in Maharashtra

Days after a woman was detected with 'foetus in foetu', an extremely rare condition, two foetuses were removed successfully post-delivery from her three-day-old child's abdomen in Amravati district, Maharashtra on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, doctors said.

The 32-year-old woman from Buldhana district was detected with the rare congenital anomaly, in which a malformed foetus is located within the body of another foetus, last month when she underwent sonography as part of regular health check-up.

The woman delivered a baby boy on February 1 at Buldhana Women's Hospital. Subsequently, she and the child were shifted to a super specialty government hospital in Amravati district where a team of doctors operated upon the newborn to remove two foetuses from his stomach, they said.

The infant was operated upon under the supervision of Usha Gajbhiye at Amravati Divisional Hospital.

Talking to reporters, Dr. Gajbhiye said there were two twinlike foetuses with hands and legs in the stomach of the three-day-old child. The foetuses were removed successfully during the operation and the baby and mother were doing well, she said.

Obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Buldhana hospital, Prasad Agarwal, who conducted the sonography on the woman when she was 35 weeks pregnant, had told reporters last Tuesday that 'foetus in foetu' is a rare medical condition, occurring in one in five lakh cases or so. Only about 200 such cases have been reported (across the world) until now, including 10-15 cases in India, he had said.