Itzamara was born by caesarean section in a hospital in Colombia, harboring in her womb the small and half-formed fetus of her twin sister. This strange phenomenon is known as "fetus in fetu", and according to the doctors who attended it it takes place in one of every 500,000 or even one million births.
To remove the fetus from the baby's body, the doctors had to practice Itzamara a caesarean section at 24 hours of birth. Luckily the operation went well and the little one recovers at home with her parents, but her case has gone around the world.
A doubly exceptional case
Monica's third pregnancy was going on normally, until on a control ultrasound in the seventh month, doctors saw something that caught her attention. It was a white dot inside the baby's abdomen, which actually it was another fetus with his amniotic sac and umbilical cord.
That is, Monica was pregnant with a girl who in turn housed another fetus inside; that of his twin sister who could not develop properly.
In Babies and more Rare cases of twinsThis strange phenomenon, known as "fetus in fetu" or twin-parasite, occurs after fertilization, during the process of cell division. The segmentation of the two cells that will give rise to fetuses does not occur as it should, causing one embryo absorbs the other during growth.
That is, one of the twins not only does not develop at the right time, but also does not do it in the right place, benefiting from the fetal circulation of his brother in order to continue living.
"Fetus in fetu", screenshot of the program Los Informantes In the case of Itzamara, her twin was developing inside her abdominal cavity, and although had not developed brain or heartHe did have limbs, head and fed on his sister through a rudimentary umbilical cord.
According to scientific literature, this phenomenon takes place in one in every million births, but what makes Itzamara's case doubly exceptional is the moment of discovery. And it is that in most cases the discovery is not made during pregnancy, but in the first years of the child's life, when an abnormal growth of his belly can be seen that initially is confused with a tumor mass.
They had to practice a caesarean section to the newborn
After the discovery, Carolina's pregnancy became very controlled, although the twin-parasite did not grow or develop at the same rate as Itzamara, the doctors had to watch him as he could compromise the life of the baby.
Therefore, they decided to perform a caesarean section on the mother in week 37, and after verifying that the newborn's health status was good, they also proceeded to perform the same intervention for her extract the undeveloped fetus from his sister.
The television program "The Informants" has echoed this exceptional case, interviewing the mother and the doctors who have made it possible that everything has finished well. And despite the exceptionality of the facts, little Itzamara is already recovering at home with her family.
