Location: Nagpur, Maharashtra, India (1999) 🇮🇳
Story: Sanju Bhagat, a 36-year-old man from rural India, was ridiculed his entire life for his enormous, distended abdomen, which made him appear heavily pregnant. He endured the nickname "the pregnant man." The condition worsened until he struggled to breathe, forcing emergency surgery. Doctors, expecting a massive tumor, prepared for a complex operation. 🧑‍🔬
Twist: When surgeons opened his abdomen, they did not find a tumor. Instead, they discovered a partially formed human fetus—complete with hair, teeth, bones, and limbs—lodged inside him. This rare condition, "fetus in fetu," occurs when a twin embryo is absorbed into the other during pregnancy and continues to grow as a parasitic mass. For three decades, Sanju had literally carried his undeveloped twin inside his body. The successful removal of the 2 kg (4.4 lb) mass gave him a new lease on life, transforming a lifetime of shame into a medical marvel. His case remains one of the most extraordinary documented examples of this phenomenon, blurring the lines between self and sibling. đź«