Gavan P.L. Watson
Consider, if you will, being born with a twin inside you. You would unlikely know that you had a twin until you (or your parents) noticed an abnormal lump growing in your gut. Going to the doctor, x-rays are taken and the medical team notices that there are extra bones in there. You get a CT scan, and that mass is diagnosed as Fetus in fetu, or your parasitic twin.
While these cases are unusual (suggested as 1 in 500 000 births) and the vast majority (89%) are diagnosed by the age of a year and a half, Sanju Bhagat, from Nagpur, India had a parasitic twin removed from his abdomen at the age of 36. Sounds like the surgeons weren’t expecting this:
“Basically, the tumor was so big that it was pressing on his diaphragm and that’s why he was very breathless,” said Dr. Ajay Mehta of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. “Because of the sheer size of the tumor, it makes it difficult [to operate]. We anticipated a lot of problems.”
Mehta said that he can usually spot a tumor just after he begins an operation. But while operating on Bhagat, Mehta saw something he had never encountered. As he cut deeper into Bhagat’s stomach, gallons of fluid spilled out — and then something extraordinary happened.
“To my surprise and horror, I could shake hands with somebody inside,” he said. “It was a bit shocking for me.”
I was shocked, a bit grossed-out and quite amazed when I read about Sanju’s situation. I think that humans have a real problem with the idea of other things inside them (consider aversion to needles, tapeworms and now, unborn, absorbed twins). However, it speaks to our understanding of self: we have a pretty strong idea that everything inside our skin is us and everything outside our skin is other. There are some boundary-breaking objects, like food (where the outside becomes the inside) and foetuses, but I do think we live in a world where the boundaries of selfhood begin and end with our bodies.
What I like about the idea of a fetus in fetu is the examination of our own self and what counts as other. I’m not so sure you can easily suggest that a parasitic twin, fed from their sibling’s blood supply, isn’t, in fact a part of that person. Something more than one but less than two?
Links: Fetus In Fetu: A Case Report and Literature Review, A Pregnant Man?, Google search for “fetus in fetu”
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One Response to Of boundaries & parasitic twins: Fetus in fetu
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I was a fetus in fetu and the remains of my dead twin were removed at the age of 35. Ultrasound scans didn’t exist when I was born in 1972 and I had been having a lot of health issues when growing, lots of pain that at the time doctors assumed I had IBS.
It was even thought I was infertile and was having pains in that region. Ironically any scans I have had in the past while they tried to figure out the pain I was suffering, didn’t showin that area and so my twin as I like to call her was hidden away.
The end of may 2005 I looked pregnant but not as bad as the indian man, I collapsed. Was rushed to hospital where scans revealed a mass sat around the area of my overies. There were concerns I had cancer but it wasn’t removed till a week later. It is then that they realised what they had found. I’m also a rare case in that what they removed was 15cm diametre and the fetus or parasite that you call it was very well preserved.
I spoke to my doctor who explained most fetus in fetu are usually formed externally off chest walls, heads, from the so called tail bone. Rare ones are found attached to the stomach and anything in that region is considered good as thye are more developed and preserved….not mush as so to speak. Mine was attached to the lining of my bowel, which is even rarer than those having it attached to their stomach.
I’m not one and a half of a person but one person that happened to swallow her siamese twin before birth. Yes, I think i’m wired differently in that I have a very high pain freshold and as my dentist found out have less nerves in my jaws that are considered to be the norm. So really my argument in response to yours is that i’m not quite a complete person…