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Baby 'carrying baby' to undergo surgery at NTB hospital
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A 10-month old baby boy diagnosed with fetus in fetu is looked after by his parents in West Nusatenggara General Hospital. (JP/Panca Nugraha)
W
est Nusa Tenggara General Hospital (RSUD NTB) is to conduct surgery on a 10-month old baby boy diagnosed with fetus in fetu, a condition where a fetus is contained within a child’s body.
Fetus in fetu is a rare condition, the hospital’s director Lalu Hamzi Fikri said the condition could occur once in every 500,000 childbirths.
“We have set up a team of doctors for the surgery,” Lalu said on Tuesday.
He said the team comprised five specialists including an obstetrician, surgeon, radiologist, pediatrician, and anesthetist. They were currently working to improve the baby’s condition and nutritional status to make him ready for the surgery.
The baby was admitted to RSUD NTB on March 11 after being referred by RSUD Selong, East Lombok, for a swelling in his abdomen.
On March 15, the results of a CT scan examination and X-ray photo detected liquid and an unidentified object inside the baby’s abdomen, which visually resembled a fetus but was no longer moving.
Meanwhile obstetrician Agus Rusdi Hamid of the hospital’s team of doctors said that fetus in fetu was a congenital abnormality as the result of a baby’s twin growing inside its body. In most cases it happened in baby boys.
He said in a fetus in fetu case, the fetus could be located in the baby’s thigh or other locations in the body where surgery was easy to perform. In this case, the fetus was inside the child’s abdomen and it was first necessary to determine whether it was attached to an important organ.
