Doctors in the Chinese province of Guizhou were astonished to find a patient they had treated for abdominal pain聽having聽four kidneys.
Twenty-eight-year-old Wang Kailian, a driver from Kaiyang county, went to the hospital in Guizhou for a check-up after he complained of pain in his聽abdomen. The doctors gave Kailian a CT Scan and saw the four organs, according to the Guizhou Metropolis Daily.
Screengrab聽from Guizhou Metropolis Daily news site
鈥淭he pain was so serious, he could barely stand,鈥� Wang鈥檚 sister told the news site. Wang鈥檚 family had a genetic history of birth defects鈥揾is father has 24 fingers and toes and his sister had extra ones,聽as well.
Surgeons removed one of Wang鈥檚 four kidneys,聽which聽was infected, on June 16, and聽he is slowly recuperating. 聽Bo Shimei, Wang鈥檚 attending physician, told local media outlets that he had never encountered a case of duplex kidneys in this 20-year medical practice.
Wang is part of the 1-percent population that聽possess four kidneys, a rare medical condition known as duplex kidneys.
A聽2008 column in The Guardian聽says聽duplex kidneys results from聽a glitch during聽the first trimester inside聽the womb of a pregnant woman, when the developing kidneys are split into two. Infections of these kidneys are caused by urine flowing back up in the ureter. Gianna Francesca Catolico