Doctors at Larissa General Hospital surgically removed the fetus of an undeveloped twin, which was more than two inches long.
The girl, whose identity has not yet been revealed, complained of consistent abdominal pains when her parents took her to the hospital. The doctors found that the right side of her stomach was swollen, leading them to believe it was a tumor.
During surgery to remove the tumor doctors discovered the girl was carrying her embryonic twin. According to Andreas Markau, the head of the hospital's pediatrics department, the embryo had a proper head, hair and eyes, but there was no brain or umbilical cord.
The girl has recovered with no problems from the operation.
Doctors described the embryo as a "parasite fetus." The enveloped twin becomes a parasite, in that its survival depends on the survival of its host twin, by drawing on the host twin's blood supply. The parasitic twin has no brain and lacks some internal organs, and as such is almost always unable to survive on its own.
Such cases occur in one of 500,000 live births.
