Indian doctors remove teen's 'parasitic' twin in rare surgery
Doctors in the Indian capital, Delhi, have performed a life-changing surgery on a 17-year-old boy to remove his "parasitic" twin that was attached to his abdomen.
The teenager who had a fully developed extra set of limbs and a pelvis - sustained by a chest artery - underwent a two-hour surgery at Aiims hospital in Delhi.Dr Asuri Krishna, who led the team of specialists, said the surgery was particularly challenging because of the patient's age.
"Only 40-50 cases of parasitic twins have been documented in world medical literature and, in those cases, the surgery had been attempted on children intuition, skill and knowledge", he added.Parasitic twins form when one foetus artially develops while attached to the other.In this case, the teenager had two fully formed legs, buttocks and external genitalia - weighing nearly 15kg - protruding from his abdomen.Remarkably, the parasitic limbs could feel pain, touch and change in temperature.
Dr Krishna said the first thing they did was identify how interconnected the parasitic and host twins were.The teen was discharged four days after being admitted. He is healthy and has suffered no complications from the surgery, Dr Krishna says.
The teenager's unusual appearance made him the subject of gossip and ridicule in his neighbourhood in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. The stares and jokes took a toll on his mental health, leaving him feeling isolated and lonely.
