Embryos found inside baby

2005-05-25 07:57

Beijing - Doctors have extracted twin parasitic embryos from a nine-month-old boy at a children's hospital in central China's Hunan province, state press reported on Wednesday.

The two egg-sized embyros were growing inside the abdomen of the baby boy who was hospitalised last week with what was thought to have been a mystery tumour, Xinhua news agency said.

Doctors believe the embryos once belonged to the boy's mother, who was likely to have been pregnant with triplets, Liu Chaoyang, a doctor at the Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital was quoted as saying.

The boy remains in critical condition and was in a coma after the two hour operation which took place on Tuesday, the report said.

Inadequate nutrition in the mother could have resulted in the embryos seeking to feed off their sibling, it said, citing doctors.

Parasitic embryos are seen once every one million births, with twin parasitic embyros even rarer, Liu said.

- AFP