Mother doing well post the procedure

Hyderabad: In a rare medical case, Targeted Imaging for Foetal Anomalies (TIFFA) scan performed on a five-month-old pregnant woman in the city revealed a foetus with two heads, two cervical spines, heart-related issues etc.

As it was not medically advisable to go ahead with this pregnancy because of complexities to the mother and the baby in the womb, the woman's family opted for an operation.

A team of senior gynaecologists from the very old Dangoria Nursing Home at RTC X Roads administered medications after which she sustained pains and aborted the foetus.

Dr Devyani Dangoria, Dr P Saileela and the medical team at the hospital were prepared to perform a surgery in case of any eventuality. The doctors were little apprehensive of a normal delivery as the foetus had two heads.

Luckily for the doctors and the patient, the foetus came out without the need for the pregnant woman to go under the knife.

P Saileela, gynaecologist with 35-years-experience, said this was first such case she had seen in her entire career. The aborted foetus weighted 850 grams and the mother was doing fine, she said.

"We doubted if this woman and her husband had a consanguineous marriage (marriage between two family members who are closely related), but it was also not the case," she said

It was Dr G Sujatha, Radiologist and proprietor of Sivani Scan Clinic in RTC X Roads, who found the various abnormalities after doing a scan on April 18 on the concerned pregnant woman.

Sujatha said that the foetus had two heads, but a single body with two legs and hands. Also, brain development was not proper with water entering inside it. The scan results were shared with Dangoria doctors, who took up the case, she added.

Dr Sujatha said that such type of abnormalities arises due to genetic problems.

She said that cases of conjoined twins was seen previously, but this case is the rarest of the rare and found in one in crore pregnancies.

The concerned family stays in Parsigutta near Secunderabad and belongs to lower class category with husband working as a driver by profession. The woman is 24-year-old and this was her first pregnancy.