Doctors at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) yesterday operated on the boy named Abu Raihan and found a foetus-in-foeto--the term for such unborn foetus--weighing 1.5 kilograms.

The foetus was found with grown up hair, legs and the genital although the development of the head and brain was very little. It also had two teeth and two slightly developed hands.

It is a matter of surprise how a boy could carry a living "child" in his body without any uterus! "We were prepared for such a surprise," said Prof MA Majid of the surgery department. "Medical science says it is possible but this is the first such case in my professional life," said the former head of the surgery department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

From 9:00 am to 1:00pm a seven-member board conducted the operation and it was a successful operation, he said, adding that the boy is now out of danger and will not face any problem in future.

During the pregnancy of the boy's mother, the growth of the twin embryos in the uterus had imbalance. At a certain period of growth, one of the embryos entered into the other due to lack of space in the mother's uterus.

Generally, a mother in such cases gives birth to twin or conjoined babies. But in this case the mother gave birth to a normal boy, the doctors said.

"When Abu Raihan was six months old, a sound of gurgling liquid could be heard when he turned from one side to the other. However, with his growing older the sound slightly abated but the boy started to feel pain in his abdomen," family sources of Abu Raihan told The Daily Star.

Day by day, the lump got bigger and started causing pained. The local doctors suspected it as a tumour.

At the age of two, Abu Raihan was taken to Barisal Medical College where also doctors suspected it as a tumour. They prescribed for an operation when the boy grows up.

Abu Raihan, son of Ahmadullah and a student of Kawmi Madrassa in Bhola, was admitted into the medicine ward of the BSMMU a month ago for the operation and two weeks ago he was taken to MA Majid.

"It is called 'macerated baby' in medical science that grows by taking nutrition through its brother's placenta circulation. Abu Raihan was going with an extra-euterine pregnancy," doctors at the BSMMU said, adding that the lump was first diagnosed as a pseudopancreatic cyst and retroperitoneal mass.

But the possibility of a monozygotic twin was suspected after X-ray, CT Scan and ultrasonograph examinations and the operation proved it true, they said.

Hundreds of people from different places gathered at the BSMMU hearing the news that a boy has come out from another teenage boy.