The family of Mohd Zul Shahril Saidin breathed a sigh of relief when it was revealed that the teenager did not have a tumour in his stomach.
However, their joy was short-lived as doctors told the family that the “tumour” was a foetus of his twin who has been living inside the student’s body for 15 years.
The foetus, which made Shahril looked like he had a paunch, was a parasite and had hair, hands, arms, and genitalia, with half-formed nose and mouth. It was removed from Shahril at a hospital recently.
The teenager’s abdomen started getting paunchy when he was younger, and he found that he had a foetus inside when he went for a medical examination. Shahril has always eaten an enourmous amount of food and even joked that he had to “feed the baby” inside of him.
The question of removing the foetus has never arisen because it did not seem to affect Shahril’s life in any way. “He could even play football,” quipped a source close to him.
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However, about a month ago, Shahril started complaining about pain in his abdomen and would vomit any food he ate. His family then brought him to the Sultan Abdul Hamid Hospital where the surgical procedure was carried out.
Shahril’s mother, Hasmah Ahmad, 38, said that funeral rites had been performed on the foetus, which was buried at the Amanjaya Cemetery in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
The phenomenon, known as “fetus in fetu”, is estimated to affect 1 in 500,000 live births. A fetus in fetu is extremely dependent on the host’s body and once removed, it’s life will cease. The circulatory system of a fetus in fetu might be fully developed, but all known cases present a very critical defect, such as no functional brain, hearts, or lungs.
It is believed that Shahril’s case is the first in Malaysia.
Sources: The Rakyat Post, The Star, Wikipedia.
