By Michael Winter, USA TODAY
Doctors in Peru planned today to remove the remains of a partially formed twin fetus from the stomach of a 3-year-old boy, according to news reports.
The living twin, Isbac Pacunda, absorbed his brother as they developed in their mother's womb, the Associated Press explains. The fetal remains -- eyes, bones and hair on the cranium -- weigh 1.5 pounds are 9 inches long. The condition occurs in about one every 500,000 live births, said Carlos Astocondor of the medical team at Las Mercedes Hospital in the northern port of Chiclayo.
Some conjoined twins can live as "parasites," relying on the body of the other for a blood supply and organ function, Jonathan Fanaroff, a neonatologist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, told ABC News. But in this case, known as fetus-in-fetu, the body of one twin envelops the other.
"In this kind of situation, because it was inside the other boy, it wasn't able to survive," Fanaroff said.
USA TODAY