A woman who thought a brain tumor was behind her concentration problems got the shock of her life when the Los Angeles surgeon performing the operation discovered an unborn twin instead!
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Indiana University PhD student Yamini Karanam, 26, went to several doctors to get checked out, telling NBC: “Problems with reading comprehension, listening comprehension. If a couple people were talking in a room, I wouldn’t understand what was happening.”
She found Dr. Hrayr Shahinian at the Skullbase Institute in Los Angeles who has developed a minimally-invasive way of reaching deep into a person’s brain to extract tumours. Known as ‘keyhole’ surgery, the doctor uses an endoscope to enter a tiny incision in the brain to very carefully and precisely get rid of the tumor.
After the procedure, Karanam woke up to learn that what Dr Shahinian thought was a tumor turned out to be her ‘evil twin sister who’s been torturing me for the past 26 years’. Even more shocking: the embryotic twin was complete with bone, hair and teeth!
Doctors say the growth, known as a brain teratoma, is very rare.
Karanam is expected to make a full recovery in three weeks but she tells the Washington Post that she now has a strange connection to her twin.
Student's 'evil twin' with hair and teeth found living in her brain http://t.co/ZLLh018t2C pic.twitter.com/rR38K0wjVP
— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) April 23, 2015