When surgeons operated on three-day old Sam Esquibel in order to remove a tumor they had spotted with a MRI machine, they found that the boy had a tiny foot inside his brain.

Moreover, while taking out the tumor, they discovered, alongside the nearly perfect foot, the partial formation of another foot, a hand and a thigh.

Doctors stated that the findings could have stemmed from a case called „foetus in foetu,” which means that a twin begins to grow within its sibling, the team at Memorial Hospital for Children in Colorado Springs having added that the latter seldom occurs in the brain.

Another reason behind the discovery could have been a congenital brain tumor, although these are not usually as developed as to contain a foot or a hand, according to the surgeons.

Paediatrics neurosurgeon Dr Paul Grabb revealed that the boy had been perfectly healthy otherwise the time he was operated on back in October.

Tiffnie and Manuel Esquibel, Sam’s parents, said their son was at home and was undergoing blood tests on a monthly basis in order to check for signs of cancer or regrowth of the tumor, as well as physical therapy so as to regain normal use of his neck.

Nevertheless, they added that the boy was recovering well after the surgery.

According to Dominic Thompson, a consultant paediatrics neurosurgeon at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, less than 100 cases of foetus in foetu have been registered by the medical literature, the doctor having also voiced his belief that such an incident had been the most probable cause of the findings in the boy’s brain, drawing on the fact that the tissue had been so well developed.