An ambulance rushed the 36-year-old farmer" to the hospital. Doctors thought he might have a giant tumor, so they decided to operate and remove the source of the bulge in his belly.

"Basically, the tumor was so big that it was pressing on his diaphragm and that's why he was very breathless," said Dr. Ajay Mehta of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai. "Because of the sheer size of the tumor, it makes it difficult [to operate]. We anticipated a lot of problems."

Mehta said that he can usually spot a tumor just after he begins an
operation. But while operating on Bhagat, Mehta saw something he had
never encountered. As he cut deeper into Bhagat's stomach, gallons of
fluid spilled out — and then something extraordinary happened.

One doctor recalled that day in the operating room. "He just put his hand inside and he said there are a lot of bones inside," she said. "First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair."

Inside Bhagat's stomach was a strange, half-formed creature that
had feet and hands that were very developed. Its fingernails were quite
long.

"We were horrified. We were confused and amazed," Mehta said.

At first glance, it may look as if Bhagat had given birth. Actually,
Mehta had removed the mutated body of Bhagat's twin brother from his
stomach. Bhagat, they discovered, had one of the world's most bizarre
medical conditions — fetus in fetu. It is an extremely rare abnormality
that occurs when a fetus gets trapped inside its twin. The trapped
fetus can survive as a parasite even past birth by forming an umbilical
cordlike structure that leaches its twin's blood supply until it grows
so large that it starts to harm the host, at which point doctors
usually intervene.

The full story has some additional details about the condition and what happened to the man after surgery. You can read about it here.

Labels: David C. Price