DHARMAPURI:Babies being born attached to each other is not so rare, but here in Dharmapuri, a stillborn baby was found with another foetus in it. Doctors call it ‘foetus-in-foetus’, an extremely rare phenomenon. The previous two occurrences were said to have taken place in 2006 and 2009. But, on those occasions, the foetus inside another foetus was found only after the baby was born. This time it was found out even before the baby was born, informed Malarvizhi of the Department of Obstetric and Gynaecology. “With the help of scans we found it before the baby was born, and informed the parents that the baby cannot be born alive. It was with the parents’ approval that the child was aborted,” she explained.
The stillborn child would have been the first child of Shankar (26), a labourer and Revathi (23) of Vattukanapatti near Marandahalli. “They found a tumour in the baby’s stomach. Hence, Revathi was admitted at government Dharmapuri Medical college hospital last Thursday,” she said.
Shankar, said they were going for check-ups every month in Marandahalli PHC, where Revathi and baby were said to have been fine. “But, after growing suspicious of the size of the mother’s stomach, we took a scan and with the report, we admitted her to GDMCH last Thursday. However, doctors informed about the condition of the child and we agreed to abort the child,” he elaborated.