Fetus in fetu

Today I was preparing for my postgraduate presentation in July. All the materials were ready but I just need pictures. yes of course I draw my own pictures, you know, to prevent plagiarism..and that is precisely why I bought this lovely, lovely, Toshiba M200 tablet PC as my drawing tablet..it is now having Window Seven as its Os..terrific, I’ll tell you.

But hey, I am not going to gloat over an old laptop. I was finding it hard to draw “survival.” any idea how? so as usual, we, PhD students will google. there are little drawings on the web that depict my ideal interpretation of survival, to capture the essence of my scientific presentation, except one.

What is this? you might ask.That is my friend, what I call a fetus in fetu..an extremely rare medical condition which can literally be described as having an unknown twin brother or sister existing in ones body for years and years. This trapped twin lived by leeching from the other twin’s major blood vessel. Emphasis on the word “lived” there which means that it was "alive" until either the host dies or when it gets removed from the host body. According to the paper that I found, a 27-year-old man was complaining of dysphagia (difficulty to swallow) which was progressive in nature, the surgeons believed that this boy might be suffering from a retroperitoneal tumour, decided to open him up (pardon me for the expression). what appeared to be an encapsulated “tumour” actually contained this structure inside it.

This is the exact description of fetus in fetu in the paper (journal, not newspaper ok =^.^=):

Gross examination of the sac showed a thin walled membrane filled with sebaceous material and hair. Contained within that sac was a structure with fetal-like features, 14 cm long, weighing 754 g covered with thick wrinkled skin and appendages. The fetal-like structure had a cranium with an eye socket, mandible and four molar teeth. There were superior limb buds consisting of a right upper limb and a left digit with pointed nails.

The lower part contained two lower limb buds with foot-like projections with five buds and long pointed nails. Histologic sections of the cyst wall showed fibrocollagenous tissue with chronic inflammation. Histologic sections of the specimen showed evidence of a cranium, retinal tissue within an eye socket, mandible with 4 teeth, an axial skeleton with cervical vertebrae and long bones and respiratory buds. Specimen radiography confirmed the presence of a rudimentary spinal column with vertebra and a bony pelvis. Each lower limb bud had a primitive femur, tibia, foot and phalanges. Genetic studies included chromosome analysis performed on fibroblasts cultured from the fetus and on leukocytes from the patient. Both subjects had a normal male karyotype (46, XY). There was no evidence of mosaicism or any structural or numerical abnormalities. Of interest was the absence of inversions in chromosome 12p frequently seen in patients with teratoma.
^{copied and pasted from :}

Case report

Dysphagia caused by a fetus-in-fetu in a 27-year-old man

Malek G. Massad, MD^a, Lawrence Kong, MD^a, Enrico Benedetti, MD^a, Daniel Resnick, MD^a, Luna Ghosh, MD^b, Alexander S. Geha, MD^a, Herand Abcarian, MD^a
a Department of Surgery, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
^b Department of Pathology, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
It’s a miracle that something like this could happen. This is the very exact definition of survival (but I cannot possibly put that picture up in my presentation, can I?) =^.^=. In fact, If someone is destined to live, he will live even in the most unlikely, most impossible condition as such. I know I am odd because I am deeply intrigued by this condition. to me, God is showing to us that He can create the most beautiful most magnificent things in this world but he can also do this.
a pessimistic atheist Professor once ask, “is God good, boy?” “ yes,” the student answered. “then why are there still be sufferings, war and death?” The student had no answer… If only I was there to help the boy answer, “ Look professor, God is good, therefore there is always war against discrimination, hatred and revenge, God is good professor and therefore there will always be worldly sufferings in return of an eternal happiness, and God is good,professor,  therefore there will always be death so that someone else can be born. because without war, how do you appreciate peace? without suffering how would we interpret joy and without death how would we live?”
Major deviation from my original fetus in fetu topic by related in so many ways nonetheless..
My last question for you to ponder my beautiful, smart, loving friends, do you think this fetus in fetu, giving the circumstances that ‘it” was alive, would it has any soul?
wassalam.
Ana