Sam Esquibel... survived surgery to remove what was believed to be a tumor when he was just 3 days old. Inside the microscopic tumor was what looked like the formations of two feet, a hand and thigh.Presumably the tumor was an intracranial teratoma, although differentiation into a complete limb would certainly be remarkable.
"To find a perfectly formed structure (like this) is extremely unique, unusual, borderline unheard of," said Dr. Paul Grabb, the veteran pediatric neurosurgeon who performed the operation on Sam...
As for what this could mean to science books, Grabb said he did not pursue it because it was not vital to saving Sam, although he did say it gave insight to stem-cell research.
"How does the body form complete extremities? Who is to say we can't grow a heart, leg or foot?" Grabb said. "This could show a window of what's possible."
Blogged also for the neurosurgeon's award-winning hyperbolic hyperbole with redundancy: "...extremely unique, unusual, borderline unheard of..." Since I'm a bit of a "grammar Nazi" I'm sometimes dismayed just by the simple phrase "very unique." Surgeons are not particularly known for precise grammar when they get excited, but this guy's construction takes the cake.
Could also be a case where a twin expired and was absorbed into the surviving twin in utero. Also very rare.
ReplyDeleteHelp! the doctor said I have athletes brain.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I read a prescription I'm amazed doctors can even spell their name.
ReplyDeleteSuperlatively one-of-a-kind!
ReplyDeleteLate to the party since I just barely discovered this dangerously addictive blog, but this is a clear case of fetus-in-fetu - similar to what "Count Stockula" said, but rather than expiration and re-absorption, a case of arrested development, which, had it continued, would have resulted in craniopagus twins.
ReplyDeleteBetter late than never. Welcome.
ReplyDeleteI think it's what the first comment said. It was obviously his twin.
ReplyDelete