Doctors reported a new case involving a one-year-old girl in China who was born with a fetus trapped inside her skull. Neurosurgeons performed surgery on the girl, who was suffering from severe head swelling and developmental delays. However, she died within two weeks because the damage to her brain was too severe for her to survive.
This extremely rare condition, scientifically known as "fetus in fetu," affects about 1 in every 500,000 births. Only 18 cases of occurrence within the skull have been reported. Doctors do not yet understand what causes this condition, but they know it occurs during development in the womb when identical twins do not completely separate after forming from the division of two eggs. One twin then becomes trapped inside the other and may continue to develop features such as nails, hair, and limbs.
