A Pregnant Man?

[Flybrian]

My God...

ABCNews

Aug. 23, 2006 — Sanju Bhagat's stomach was once so swollen he looked nine months pregnant and could barely breathe.

Living in the city of Nagpur, India, Bhagat said he'd felt self-conscious his whole life about his big belly. But one night in June 1999, his problem erupted into something much larger than cosmetic worry.

An ambulance rushed the 36-year-old farmer to the hospital. Doctors thought he might have a giant tumor, so they decided to operate and remove the source of the bulge in his belly.

"Basically, the tumor was so big that it was pressing on his diaphragm and that's why he was very breathless," said Dr. Ajay Mehta of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. "Because of the sheer size of the tumor, it makes it difficult [to operate]. We anticipated a lot of problems."

Mehta said that he can usually spot a tumor just after he begins an operation. But while operating on Bhagat, Mehta saw something he had never encountered. As he cut deeper into Bhagat's stomach, gallons of fluid spilled out — and then something extraordinary happened.

"To my surprise and horror, I could shake hands with somebody inside," he said. "It was a bit shocking for me."

Removing the Mutated Body

One doctor recalled that day in the operating room.

"He just put his hand inside and he said there are a lot of bones inside," she said. "First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair."

Inside Bhagat's stomach was a strange, half-formed creature that had feet and hands that were very developed. Its fingernails were quite long.

"We were horrified. We were confused and amazed," Mehta said.

A Mutated Body Within a Body

At first glance, it may look as if Bhagat had given birth. Actually, Mehta had removed the mutated body of Bhagat's twin brother from his stomach. Bhagat, they discovered, had one of the world's most bizarre medical conditions — fetus in fetu. It is an extremely rare abnormality that occurs when a fetus gets trapped inside its twin. The trapped fetus can survive as a parasite even past birth by forming an umbilical cordlike structure that leaches its twin's blood supply until it grows so large that it starts to harm the host, at which point doctors usually intervene.

According to Mehta, there are fewer than 90 cases of fetus in fetu recorded in medical literature.

Fetus in fetu happens very early in a twin pregnancy, when one fetus wraps around and envelops the other. The dominant fetus grows, while the fetus that would have been its twin lives on throughout the pregnancy, feeding off its host twin like a kind of parasite. Usually, both twins die before birth from the strain of sharing a placenta.

Sometimes, however, as in Bhagat's case, the host twin survives and is delivered. What makes his case so unusual is that no one suspected Bhagat had a twin inside him for 36 years.

Bhagat said he was very much relieved after his operation. He was not interested in knowing what Mehta did to him or seeing what he had removed from his abdomen.

"He didn't want to see it because it was looking very ghastly," Mehta said.

Avoiding the Gory Details

There was no placenta inside Bhagat — the enveloped parasitic twin had connected directly to Bhagat's blood supply. Right after the surgery, Bhagat's pain and inability to breathe disappeared and he recovered immediately.

The case may have been a medical miracle to doctors, but to Bhagat his condition had been a source of shame and misery. All his life, people in the village where he lived had mercilessly teased him and told him he looked pregnant. Ironically, they were right in a way.

Today Bhagat is in good health and leads a normal life, but he still gets teased occasionally.

"They still ridicule him. What they say is, you went for an operation and you had the baby," Mehta said.

[mustang84]

I've heard it all now...

[Delta Force79]

holy $h!....

[thegriffon]

I recall a similar case in Egypt some years ago. Shades of Total Recall.

[Croc]

ewwwwwwwwwwww gross

[FAPTurbo]

I recall a similar case in Egypt some years ago. Shades of Total Recall.

187331[/snapback]

Or another Schwarzeneggar film called "Junior"

Oh, and it's got Danny DeVito! :sign0200:

Edited August 31, 2006 by Captainbooyah

[ocnblu]

Yeah, I saw the video clip on this. The "twin" was so nasty looking, it makes me want to grab my puke bucket... ugh. Right out of "Alien".

[usonia]

I was afraid I was going to scroll down and see pictures!

[91z4me]

I sometimes think I could have part of my 'twin' in me. I was predicted to be twins until the 3rd month when my mother got the flu real bad and went on bedrest. I have a pretty distinctive birthmark, 3rd nipple, that theoretically could be part of the 2nd embryo, more than likely it is just repetitive gene expression.

BTW another movie that had a partial twin in a person a writer, had an eye on the top of his head that opened up and had to be removed from his head! Pretty weird to see. A bunch of birds come along at the end of the movie and rip the bad twin apart and take him away. Good film but I can't think of the name.

[ZL-1]

I've heard it all now...

187326[/snapback]

[Sixty8panther]

Dear Lord Almighty...

[Dragon]

wasn't there something like this early on in the X-Files too?

[cmattson]

Once again, this proves my "Jerry Springer" principle:

There are enough people on the planet that if just 1% of 1% of 1% exhibit some freakish attribute and/or personal behaviour, then you'll easily have enough that are willing to go on TV and showcase it.

While this individual is hardly showcasing his abnormalities, he certainly falls into that 1% of 1% of 1% category - and he did receive press about it - which means by this time next week, we'll have heard of about 15 cases just like this one.

[NOS2006]

Yeah, I saw the video clip on this.  The "twin" was so nasty looking, it makes me want to grab my puke bucket... ugh.  Right out of "Alien".

187346[/snapback]

Yep, me too.. it was on TV last week I believe. I must say, it was the complete opposite of "good looking"

[ohsnap]

Yikes! I've heard about this before but that was one huge belly! The other case I heard about was odd in that the undeveloped twin had partially calcified and that's when the person began noticing health problems.

Seriously, it never ceases to amaze me what the twists the human body can endure and support!

[Cory Wolfe]

Weird... but I have to see this. Any pictures anywhere?

[Guest YellowJacket894]

I sometimes think I could have part of my 'twin' in me.  I was predicted to be twins until the 3rd month when my mother got the flu real bad and went on bedrest.  I have a pretty distinctive birthmark, 3rd nipple, that theoretically could be part of the 2nd embryo, more than likely it is just repetitive gene expression.

It's real. A lot of single people start out as two separate beings and become one very early in the fetus development stages. Sometimes the other being isn't totally absorbed and odd birthmarks can be left behind.

But sometimes the absorbtion isn't complete or takes place later in the process and mutations can occur, such as two-headed twins, twins joined at certain body parts, and so forth.

BTW another movie that had a partial twin in a person a writer, had an eye on the top of his head that opened up and had to be removed from his head!  Pretty weird to see.  A bunch of birds come along at the end of the movie and rip the bad twin apart and take him away.  Good film but I can't think of the name.

187350[/snapback]

The Dark Half is what you're thinking of; a film from 1993 directed by George Romero starring Timothy Hutton and based on the Stephen King novel. Good film, good book. (By the way, the other "twin" wasn't really a person until the point in time that the book/movie starts. Stuff about twins litter the book/moive, the book more than the movie. No clue as to how it came to be, but it was the embodiment of Thad Beaumont's psuedonym George Stark.) There's also one bad assed Toronado in that book/movie, too.

"High Toned Son of a Bitch"

Edited August 31, 2006 by YellowJacket894

[staceface]

I told this story at lunch today - oh yeah - i made people gag.... just one thing -

MUST SEE VIDEO

[91z4me]

The Dark Half is what you're thinking of; a film from 1993 directed by George Romero starring Timothy Hutton and based on the Stephen King novel. Good film, good book. (By the way, the other "twin" wasn't really a person until the point in time that the book/movie starts. Stuff about twins litter the book/moive, the book more than the movie.  No clue as to how it came to be, but it was the embodiment of Thad Beaumont's psuedonym George Stark.) There's also one bad assed Toronado in that book/movie, too.

"High Toned Son of a Bitch"

187524[/snapback]

Yes, that is the movie, I remember George Stark now. They even had it on the psuedonym's gravestone. It was a really good movie, though I don't remember the Toranado in it specifically, I haven't seen that movie in a long time.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Yes, that is the movie, I remember George Stark now.  They even had it on the psuedonym's gravestone.  It was a really good movie, though I don't remember the Toranado in it specifically,  I haven't seen that movie in a long time.

187555[/snapback]

Well, I have it on DVR and I watched for the second time last month...

I wish the Epilouge of the book would've made it into the movie. It would've made it more complete.

[Turbojett]

Everyone's saying "I've seen this--you've gotta see this!"

...and yet nobody's provided a link so that we can see it.