Teen undergoes surgery after carrying his unborn twin in his stomach for 15 years

Since birth, a teenage boy in Malaysia has carried around the unborn fetus of his twin. Recently, the teen successfully underwent surgery to remove the mass, which is believed to be the first such case in the country, Central European News (CEN) reported. Mohd Zul Shahril Saidin, 15, is the fifth of eight children and a native of the town of Baling. He was only hospitalized within the last four months after complaining of pain, CEN reported. After the surgery, reports suggest the fetus had hair, legs, hands and genitals.
“The fetus removed from my son’s stomach was formed with organs like those of a baby— only the nose and mouth were not complete,” Hasmah Ahmad, the teen’s mother, told CEN.
The condition is known as “fetus in fetu,” a rare congenital anomaly in which a malformed and parasitic fetus is located in the body of its twin, according to the National Institutes of Health. The mass resided in Saidin’s abdomen. The phenomenon occurs in 1 in every 500,000 live births, CEN reported. The family has performed funeral rites on the fetus, which has been buried in a cemetery.