"You'd never know if he didn't have a scar there"

December 18, 2008 9:21 AM

It was a Teratoma, not Fetus in Fetu. Doctors discover foot growing in baby’s brain.

Google has many more articles, and while the text is mostly the same, more images can be found (if you're not squeamish). Whole post should go without saying that it might upset your lunch or coworkers.

posted by cjorgensen (70 comments total)

Just more proof of intelligent design.
posted by Manjusri at 9:25 AM on December 18, 2008 [15 favorites]

Either that, or Monty Python created the universe. Or fathered that kid.

I admit, though, that the first thing I thought of when reading this was the Stephen King book, The Dark Half. Eerily similar.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:36 AM on December 18, 2008

Speaking as someone who did a Ph.D. in developmental neurobiology: that is totally fucking awesome.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 9:38 AM on December 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

how is babby malformed?
posted by knave at 9:43 AM on December 18, 2008 [25 favorites]

Riddle me this, Batman:

So the cause, as it was explained, is that some stem cells decided to be a foot and developed as such inside the brain. So does this mean stem cells originally intended to be, say, part of the brain, are now missing and little dude is missing a bit of grey matter?

Furthermore, what about when stem cells decide to turn into bits less obvious, like say some kind of extra bit of nerve or neuron that winds up connecting bits of the brain that shouldn't normally be connected? Can that sort of thing be easily detected?

And when can I buy the brain mod with the really long needle you stick up through your nose and implant super-neuron stem cell generators to make you, as the Boston kids say, "wicked smaht"?
posted by ruthsarian at 9:44 AM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

I dub thee Athena.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:44 AM on December 18, 2008 [13 favorites]

Now we know what those mad-scientist perpetrators are doing with the OTHER feet in Vancouver.
posted by netbros at 9:44 AM on December 18, 2008 [3 favorites]

Grabb also found other partially formed appendages and what appeared to be ropes of an intestine tucked within the folds.
oh mi god oh mi god ohmigodohmigodohmigod

This sqwicks me out like nothing else I can think of except parasites, parasites growing in the brain, paracites growing in the brain and looking like intestines.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:46 AM on December 18, 2008

Your three story links all say it's either a teratoma or fetus in fetu, the docs are not sure. So why do you say "it was a teratoma, not fetus in fetu"?
posted by beagle at 9:46 AM on December 18, 2008

So the cause, as it was explained, is that some stem cells decided to be a foot...

You're giving the stem cells a little too much self-deterministic credit there.
posted by rokusan at 9:47 AM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

There's really not a whole lot I can say to this. Life's a mystery in every way.
posted by boo_radley at 9:49 AM on December 18, 2008

I've heard of putting your foot in your mouth but this takes the cake!
posted by Pollomacho at 9:49 AM on December 18, 2008

I just love that the surgeon's name is Dr. Grabb.
posted by mothershock at 9:50 AM on December 18, 2008

Well, at least we finally have an explanation for George W. Bush.
posted by briank at 9:54 AM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Guy_Inamonkeysuit: "I admit, though, that the first thing I thought of when reading this was the Stephen King book, The Dark Half. Eerily similar."

First thing that I thought of too. I assume that this has happened before and King based his story on that.
posted by octothorpe at 9:55 AM on December 18, 2008

beagle, consider that a typo. I read the AP article on like 9 different sites looking for a variety of pictures (second link has only video I could find). One of the first articles I read said it wasn't a fetus in fetu (or I misread).

Consider that part corrected. Either way, the baby had a foot in its brain.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:56 AM on December 18, 2008

Well, at least we finally have an explanation for George W. Bush.

And an explanation for why the shoe was aimed at his head.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:59 AM on December 18, 2008 [5 favorites]

It was a Teratoma, not Fetus in Fetu.

How do they distinguish those cases, if they are both genetically identical? From the article, it sounded like it was rare but not unheard of that this could have been an in fetu case.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:02 AM on December 18, 2008

On preview, never mind.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:03 AM on December 18, 2008

And an explanation for why the shoe was aimed at his head.

If the shoe fits...
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:08 AM on December 18, 2008

I've heard of putting your foot in your mouth but this takes the cake! What someone already said that one.... hmmmmm

Well, at least we finally have an explanation for George W. Bush. Oh you gotta be kidding me!?!?! Someone said that already too?

Fine I can see when my comedic banter isn't needed.

I'll be in "Almost everyone is familiar with Airliners.net" if anyone needs me......
posted by Mastercheddaar at 10:09 AM on December 18, 2008

Can I just say that this story make me feel squeamish and queasy to the point that I feel the need to collapse and roll around the floor, groaning and squeezing myself. GAAAAAAAA
posted by KokuRyu at 10:21 AM on December 18, 2008

Terry the Teratoma!
posted by FatherDagon at 10:22 AM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

First thing that I thought of too. I assume that this has happened before and King based his story on that.

Stephen King always writes those lengthy foreword/afterword sections in his books and I seem to remember The Dark Half having one where he talked about his research with doctors about the whole fetus-absorbing-its-twin angle. But it's been years, I think I read that book in 8th Grade. Maybe if someone has a copy kicking around they can check it out.
posted by mannequito at 10:38 AM on December 18, 2008

I felt bad because I didn't have any shoes.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:40 AM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure that I was born with breasts growing in my brain.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 10:45 AM on December 18, 2008 [3 favorites]

Achilles' heel respawns in baby's brain.
posted by doctorschlock at 10:49 AM on December 18, 2008

This sqwicks me out like nothing else I can think of except parasites, parasites growing in the brain, paracites growing in the brain and looking like intestines.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 12:46 PM on December 18

Surprise! Brain parasites do exist.

WARNING! Unlike tapeworms or other parasites that are passed though physical contact with microscopic eggs, brain parasites are passed visually. In other words, if you clicked the "surprise" link and saw the brain parasites, you now have brain parasites. Sorry. I guess I should have said something before.

I'm immune from brain parasites. Turns out that if you've lost your mind, the worms can't find it either.
posted by Pastabagel at 10:49 AM on December 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

The intestines are, IMO, way grosser than the foot. The foot is just awesome.

(Insert "shit for brains" joke here.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:56 AM on December 18, 2008

how is babby malformed?

THEY NEED TO DO WAY INSTAIN MOTHERS WHO PUT FEETS IN THIER BABBYS BRANS.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:01 AM on December 18, 2008 [3 favorites]

Secret Life of Gravy:
This sqwicks me out like nothing else I can think of except parasites, parasites growing in the brain, paracites growing in the brain and looking like intestines.

I'd like to recommend a book for you. Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I don't know why. Just a random, non-related thought.
posted by Free word order! at 11:04 AM on December 18, 2008

Actually, it was feetus in fetu.
posted by hanoixan at 11:06 AM on December 18, 2008 [8 favorites]

On the subject of parasitism, a note side effect of brain parasites is that they interfere with your visual cortex. They make it so that you can only see the infestation, mutation, and parasitism in others. For example, in a social gathering you'd instantly spot the victim of tapeworms, the cute girl with athlete's foot, or the shy boy with lice.

You see from my links here that in my eyes, you are all monsters, teeming with corpuscles, fruiting sores, monstrous carcinomas. That skin tag on you eyelid? I see it sprouting vestigial appendages, clotted fingers, and bearing countlesss spores. I see the halitosis burst from your mouths like vines and viscera. I see the mushroom caps burst from each blackhead in every pore on your nose. You are all hosts of a thousand unimaginable seeping crawling terrors.

I tore my eyes out long ago and I still see things things in you. I see them in sound they make, the cacaphony of the bursting of a thousands tiny cysts, and the dry whisper that signals the spreading of myriad abominable flowers. Every cruel thought you think births a new carcinoma on the slimy surface of your fetid crackled flesh, and the division of each errant cell echoes in my ears like the popping of corn. The din is maddening, and suicide I know will offer no relief. Each tumor that leaves this world rots anew in the next. In the afterlife you infections would fill my nostrils and lungs and I would spend eternity like that, because in the afterlife, there is no place to die to.

* dons coat. * leaves
posted by Pastabagel at 11:11 AM on December 18, 2008 [4 favorites]

You have to understand that in brain surgeon culture, showing a sole of a foot from your brain is considered a huge insult of their skill and sense of direction.
posted by Free word order! at 11:18 AM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Kind of squicky use of [more inside], no?
posted by jokeefe at 11:19 AM on December 18, 2008 [3 favorites]

Ick. If there was visual tracking on me reading Pastabagel's comment trying to avoid being completely grossed out it would have shown quick areas of focus or concentration then zips to the bottom left, millisecond of stop, zip to middle right, nanopause, zip to bottom right, middle, top, left, upper right, bottom left, and finally, I just gave up after I kept settling on words that will make me want to rip my own eyes out. I'd flag it, but I'm afraid to get near enough to touch it.
posted by cashman at 11:20 AM on December 18, 2008

Yo baby you must be tired cuz you've been running through my head all day...
posted by Citizen Premier at 11:23 AM on December 18, 2008

YO DAWG I HEAR YOU LIKE THINKING ABOUT RUNNING SO I PUT A FOOT IN YOUR BRAIN SO YOU CAN RUN WHILE YOU THINK.
posted by GuyZero at 11:38 AM on December 18, 2008 [6 favorites]

Doctors discover foot growing in baby’s brain.

They better keep it clean, otherwise it'll get Athlete's Lobe.
posted by jonmc at 11:47 AM on December 18, 2008

Kid's got sole.
posted by brundlefly at 11:55 AM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

What a cute little toe-headed baby...
posted by Rumple at 12:02 PM on December 18, 2008

Ain't that a kick in the head.
posted by cazoo at 12:03 PM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

To be defeeted on day 3 is a tough way to start off life...
posted by Rumple at 12:05 PM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one foot in my brain. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, "What?"
posted by Floydd at 12:38 PM on December 18, 2008 [9 favorites]

Does this mean they have found physiological evidence proving the sole is a part of the brain and not the heart?
posted by davemee at 12:41 PM on December 18, 2008

Well, I'm as guilty as anyone else for being a smart-ass in here, but the good news for the kid is that he seems to be fine. And that's what is important, after all.

Still... yeaaagh. Intestines? In the brain?
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 12:42 PM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Descartes was right: Sole affects the body by kicking the pineal gland around.
posted by Free word order! at 12:47 PM on December 18, 2008

the first thing I thought of when reading this was the Stephen King book...

First thing that popped into -but not out of- my head was Thoreau: "My head is hands and feet"
posted by hal9k at 12:52 PM on December 18, 2008

So these feet washing up on the beach. They are somehow connected...no?
posted by doctorschlock at 12:55 PM on December 18, 2008

♫ My pal's name is foot-foot... ♪
posted by everichon at 1:02 PM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

I was reading that fourth link and somehow my brain saw

Dr. Paul Grabb, a podiatric brain surgeon,

and I thought to myself, "wow, this must be the case this guy's been waiting for his whole life!"
posted by kaytwo at 1:15 PM on December 18, 2008 [4 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that I was born with breasts growing in my brain.

Actually, everyone was. They're called mamillary glands.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 1:20 PM on December 18, 2008

The kid would have been really good at improv. It's all about thinking on your feet.
posted by adamk at 1:32 PM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

That's nothing. As a kid, my Dad kept telling me I was going to find his foot up my ass some day if I didn't straighten up.
posted by Mcable at 1:35 PM on December 18, 2008

AHHH!!!
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 1:46 PM on December 18, 2008

Because I'm a horrible, shallow person, I was ready to judge this poor kid's mom over the spelling of her name, but reading this I fell in love with her a little bit:

"Sam's mom, Tiffnie, told TheDenverChannel on Wednesday that her son is doing well but that she didn't want to appear on camera because she doesn't want to exploit her child and make him appear like a freak in the eyes of the world.

"This is our baby," Tiffnie explained, in tears."

I can't even IMAGINE how freaked out I would be under the circumstances.
posted by Space Kitty at 2:34 PM on December 18, 2008

16 years from now:

Parent: Why are you failing math?

Sullen teen: Oh, I don't know, maybe it's because I WAS BORN WITH A FOOT INSIDE MY HEAD now give me the car keys please.
posted by longsleeves at 2:52 PM on December 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

So these feet washing up on the beach. They are somehow connected...no?

No. That's why they wash up on the beach.
posted by sonic meat machine at 3:28 PM on December 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

how is babby malformed?

THEY NEED TO DO WAY INSTAIN MOTHERS WHO PUT FEETS IN THIER BABBYS BRANS.

it was on the news this mroing, a mother in ar who had foot her three kids. they are taking the three babby back to new york for fittings, my pary are with the father who shod his chrilden; i am truley soley for your lots.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:47 PM on December 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'd like to recommend a book for you. Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I don't know why. Just a random, non-related thought.
posted by Free word order! at 2:04 PM

Read it. Not as horrifying as I was expecting. Not as horrifying as...say....intestines in the brain. But then, nothing can compete with intestines in the brain. Foot in the brain, liver in the brain, brain in the brain, whatev.

Although, eyeball in the brain does give me pause.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:08 PM on December 18, 2008

Wow, I hope he recovers well.

Is there a pic of the other body parts/intestine, besides the foot?
posted by NikitaNikita at 4:19 PM on December 18, 2008

Brain surgeon? Kid needed a podiatrist.
posted by bardic at 4:22 PM on December 18, 2008

They should rename the kid Oedipus.
posted by exlotuseater at 11:38 PM on December 18, 2008

Boot to the head?
posted by pwb503 at 3:01 AM on December 19, 2008

They should rename the kid Oedipus.

Oedipus, more like Pedipus, ararite?
posted by Pollomacho at 5:42 AM on December 19, 2008

Why, he's grown a foot since I've seen him last time.
posted by gimonca at 5:48 AM on December 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

According to the lay press, the pathologist signed the case out as a teratoma.

I probably would have as well. In order to diagnose fetus-in-fetu you need to find a vertebral column, and in the absence of that, I think most pathologists would agree that you would have to call it a teratoma. Of course, teratomas (ovarian most commonly) are notorious for having well-organized, easily recognizable structures grossly, like teeth, eyes, brain, ears, etc. While, I've never seen a well-developed foot like that, I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see one in an otherwise typical teratoma.

It is an extremely cool case though, I wish it had been mine.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 7:54 AM on December 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

"You admire it, don't you?"

But cheers to the kid and his parents. Glad it all worked out.
posted by bardic at 8:34 AM on December 19, 2008

yo dawg we heard you like drooling so we put a foot in your brain so u can like hrmble grrrmb ghrnfl
posted by tehloki at 10:30 PM on December 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

Ha. I knew it was a teratoma, not F-in-f. Score one for me.
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:51 PM on December 20, 2008