A 2-year-old in China is reported to have "given birth" to the undeveloped fetus of his twin.
Xiao Feng, of Huaxi, was taken to the hospital after his parents noticed he had a bloated stomach and was having trouble breathing, News.com.au reported Monday.
Doctors found that Feng was carrying an undeveloped fetus inside his abdominal cavity, and removed it through emergency surgery, according to Inquisitr's translation of newscast from a China Central Television, a state-run media outlet.
The fetus, doctors say, was Feng's twin. Identical twins occur when a fertilized egg splits in two. Conjoined twins occur when a fertilized egg begins to split, but fails to do so completely. In Feng's case, the fetus was his conjoined twin that had been absorbed into his body inside the womb.
Doctors surgically removed the fetus, noting that Feng would have died if the parasitic twin hadn't been removed.The dead fetus was about 10 inches wide and had a fully-formed spine and limbs.
Is this case too bizarre to be believed? Maybe, but the same thing happened last year in Peru, when a three-year-old boy was found to be carrying his parasitic twin brother inside of him, according to CBS News.
In 2008, there was a similar case involving 9-year-old in Greece. The girl was diagnosed with a tumor that turned out to be concealing the undeveloped embryo of her parasitic twin, Medical News Today reported.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the fetus was inside Xiao Feng's stomach. It was inside his abdominal cavity.