A Baby Was Born With a Partially Developed Embryo Inside of Her Stomach

A newborn baby girl in Israel had a partially developed embryo inside of her stomach. Doctors found the shocking discovery after suspecting that she had something enlarged in her stomach before she was born.

The medical term for this rare occurrence is called fetus-in-fetu and happens 1 in every 500,000 infants born. The baby girl was born earlier this month at Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod.

When surgery was done to remove the undeveloped embryo, two more possible undeveloped embryos were discovered. The baby is expected to make a full recovery.

“We think that there was more than one there, and we are still checking that,” the director of neonatology at Assuta, Omer Globus, said.

The initial embryo removed didn’t look as most would imagine. “It did not look like an embryo as you imagine it,” he said. Although doctors could see some bones and a heart, the embryo was only partially developed.

Globus explained how this occurs, “It happens as part of the fetal development process when there are cavities that close during development, and one of the embryos enters such a space,” he stated. “The fetus inside partially develops but does not live and remains there.”