3 year old Isbac Pacunda went to the hospital with stomach pains in her native Peru. What doctors discovered was nothing short of creepy.
Inside Pacunda’s stomach was a parasitic twin, a twin that forms in the womb but does not fully separate from the other. This can turn either into a conjoined twin (where one twin shares parts of its body with the other or a parasitic twin, where the dominant twin develops fully but the other twin does not develop in the womb and creates additional body parts on the dominant twin.
Parasitic twins are a condition that occurs in about one in every five hundred thousand births.
The parasitic twin that is in little Isbac’s stomach weighs about a pound and in nine inches long. Its brain, heart, lungs and intestines never developed after it was absorbed into Isbac when they were both in the womb. It does have a body and hair, eyes and bones.
Isbac has surgery scheduled for today to remove the parasitic twin.
Some doctors claim that parasitic twins are the link between conjoined twins and healthy twins and should be studied further. In knowing how their formation process occurs it may be possible to limit the occurrence in the womb and avoid the complication to the healthy twin after birth.
How weird is this one for you? What do you think your reaction would be if your three year old had a parasitic twin living in its stomach?
Watch a video of the Parasitic Twin
