Surgeons remove parasitic twin from teenager who had legs on his chest

[smfadmin (OP)]

https://www.livescience.com/health/surgery/surgeons-remove-parasitic-twin-from-teenager-who-had-legs-growing-out-of-his-chest?utm_term=032043BB-1CB4-4440-A845-2FF7DCCBD37B&lrh=1e7f7a9239bb44f191dc979b8fe5e634e587dfe020b84a653d2040468a8b342b&utm_campaign=368B3745-DDE0-4A69-A2E8-62503D85375D&utm_medium=email&utm_content=850B1198-8EB2-4B8A-83F7-9B68FDF1A8EA&utm_source=SmartBrief

Surgeons remove parasitic twin from teenager who had legs growing out of his chest

February 27, 2025

A rare parasitic twin protruding from the chest of a 17-year-old boy has been removed by surgeons in Delhi, India.

Surgeons in India have removed a parasitic twin from a teenager who had an extra set of legs, buttocks and genitals attached to his chest.

The parasitic twin condition occurs when a conjoined twin stops developing but stays attached to its surviving twin. In this case, the parasitic twin was protruding from the abdomen of a 17-year-old boy and weighed almost 33 pounds (15 kilograms), BBC News reported.

Doctors at the All India Institute Of Medical Science hospital in Delhi detached the parasitic twin during a successful two-hour-long surgery on Feb. 8, according to The Indian Express.

Parasitic twins are extremely rare, and this surgery was an exceptional case because they're usually removed when the surviving twin is very young.

"Only 40 to 50 cases of parasitic twins have been documented in world medical literature and, in those cases, the surgery had been attempted on children," Dr. Asuri Krishna, who led the team of doctors in Delhi, told BBC News.