- Title: The Boy Who Gave Birth To His Twin
- Date: 8th December 2003
- Summary: BodyShock, Channel 4's new series of extreme human science from around the world, tells the incredible story of seven-year-old Alamjan from Kazakhstan. This summer he underwent surgery after his stomach became so distended that he looked pregnant. What the doctors found was reported around the world - growing inside Alamjan was his own twin. With exclusive access to Alamjan's family and the medical team who operated on him, The Boy Who Gave Birth to His Twin reveals the truth of Alamjan's rare condition, and features similar cases in Britain and America. And while the condition is very rare, life and death struggles for survival take place between all twins inside the womb. More often than not there is only one survivor - in fact, as many as one in eight of us may have been conceived as twins. Living in a remote village in Kazakhstan, Alamjan's family assumed that his growing stomach was the result of rickets and didn't take him to a doctor. But when he started school, the doctor there was shocked at his peculiar stomach and told the family to get him to a hospital immediately. Surgeons detected what they assumed to be a cyst. However, when they cut Alamjan open they were aghast to see something quite different - a large, oval mass nestled in the boy's abdomen, covered in veins, each connected to blood vessels. After a complex operation the mass was removed and surgeons were able to examine it in detail. What they discovered appeared to be a baby, with long black hair and what appeared to be limbs, nails and genitalia. The body seemed to be male and alive, sustaining itself parasitically off its brother. The doctors were unsure what this apparently humanoid creature was. "We were scared," one admits, "it was unpleasant for us." The doctors felt strongly that Alamjan's mother should see what had been removed from her child. "I wanted to teach her a lesson because she has other children," says the head surgeon, "...the father absolutely refused to look at it." Dr Virginia Baldwin, a Vancouver-based paediatric pathologist and world expert in multiple pregnancy problems, was called in to help and travelled to Kazakhstan. It was vital for Alamjan's future health that Dr Baldwin identifies what was growing inside him. The most likely diagnosis is foetus in fetu, literally meaning 'a baby inside a baby'. This extraordinary and extremely rare phenomenon occurs in the very early stages of pregnancy, where one twin gets trapped inside the body of the other and lives parasitically. Only approximately 70 cases have ever been reported. If it is a foetus in fetu, then it is an anomaly of twinning - a one-off accident of nature with no long-term consequences for Alamjan. However, there is a possibility that it may be a cancerous teratoma - a tumour that can contain hair, teeth and even limbs - that could endanger Alamjan's life. The 'baby inside a baby' phenomenon, though rare, is not unknown. The best-documented case was reported in the USA, where an eight-and-a-half-month pregnant woman travelled to the Yale School of Medicine to see a specialist. A dark shadow had been detected in her baby's kidney. Scans revealed that the dark mass was moving - it was a foetus in fetu. The film features never-seen-before scan footage showing the normal baby inside the womb, and inside the baby a moving foetus - like Russian dolls. This was the first time a foetus had been detected while the 'host' twin was still in the womb. Thankfully, the pregnancy went to term and, when the healthy twin was just three days old, the foetus in fetu was removed. Meanwhile, in the UK, Sarah and Razz have discovered that Sarah is pregnant with twins, but one is acardiac - it has no head and no heart. The film follows the couple through a momentous day where they meet specialist, Professor Fisk. He explains to the couple that the acardiac twin is not viable. The healthy twin is having to pump blood for two and the strain could kill it. The couple opt for surgery that same day. Prof. Fisk performs a procedure used only twice before: severing the abnormal twin's connection to the normal twin, using a laser. This will terminate the life of the acardiac twin, but there are also very real risks for the healthy twin. Astonishing footage of the keyhole surgery from a camera inside Sarah's womb shows the delicate procedure. At every moment there is a risk of damaging the healthy twin. Fortunately the operation is a success. Now Sarah and Razz have to wait - the next 12 hours are crucial. The following morning the couple are relieved to discover their healthy twin has made it through the night. There is still the risk of miscarriage, but a month later Sarah is still pregnant. The abnormal twin is "floating" in her womb. "When I have the caesarean, they'll just take it away," she says. In Kazakhstan, Dr Baldwin arrives at the pathology lab to examine the specimen. She's astonished at what she sees, but after carefully examining the hair, face, fingers and scrotum, she is able to reassure the family that it is a foetus in fetu. There are no genetic or hereditary implications for Alamjan or his family; he will lead a normal healthy life. But the case illustrates a little-known and disturbing fact, according to Dr Baldwin: not only are twins prone to abnormalities, but also have very high mortality rates. The staggering truth is that one in eight of us may have originally been conceived as a twin, but the co-twin died so early in pregnancy that neither parents nor doctors ever knew.
- Description:The incredible story of seven-year-old Alamjan from Kazakhstan who underwent surgery for a distended stomach that was making him look pregnant. What the doctors discovered inside was reported around the world - Alamjan's own twin was growing inside of him. Known literally as 'a baby inside a baby',the condition is very rare,but its examination leads to insight that a life and death struggle for survival takes place between all twins when they are in the womb.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:Mentorn Media Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:08/12/2003
- Rights:On Request
- Decade: 2000s