A baby born in India with a head attached to its stomach was given a lifesaving surgery to remove it.
The baby girl who was born to to a 22-year-old woman Amlekha Bairva at a small government-run hospital on May 13, had the head of her parasitic twin attached to her stomach.
The baby was rushed to another hospital in Jaipur, northern India and 13 days later, a team of doctors successfully detached the head – which was completely formed and attached by the neck to the stomach – in a 90-minute operation.
Daily News reports:
“It was a case of hetropahus twin, but we
have successfully detached the head that was attached to the anterior
abdominal wall. Blood from the baby’s chest and abdomen was feeding the
head. We managed to reconstruct the abdominal wall,” Dr. Chetan Sharma,
the pediatric surgeon who operated on the baby, said.
“The baby will require a second and final
operation to reconstruct the exomphalos after 45 days. And she will then
be a completely healthy child with no medical complications in the
future.”
The baby girl, yet to be named, was born
naturally and weighed 4 pound, 8 ounces, but soon after her delivery she
developed jaundice, which delayed surgery.
The baby is now under close observation in
the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital and will hopefully be
discharged after a month.
Father Ramjilal Bairva, 29, is overjoyed the surgery was a success.
“I am very happy and thankful to the
doctors and God for my daughter’s successful surgery,” he said. “I could
not hold my baby before, but now I will be able to cuddle her.
“She is a very beautiful and I will make sure that she faces no problem in the future,” he added.
Parasitic twins occur when a twin embryo
begins to develop in the uterus but the pair doesn’t fully separate. One
embryo then becomes the dominant development at the expense of the
other.