Baby boy born with a ‘tail’ goes viral on social media, medics stunned

• Image Credit: Internet

• Nov 6, 2021 | moderator

Brasilia: In a rare medical condition, a baby boy born is born in Brazil with a 12 cm-long appendage with a ball on the end, mimicking like that of a ‘human tail’ as revealed by the doctors.

Pictures of the baby, published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports, show how the appendage had a ball-shaped mass at the end. The doctors were able to successfully remove the 'chain and ball' after surgery. Interestingly, the growth was not spotted until the baby was born.

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It's a fact that human babies grow an embryonic tail while in the womb, at around the four to eight-week gestation point. But the growth is fast reabsorbed back into the body, eventually resulting in the formation of the tailbone. But in this rare case from Brazil, the tail continued to grow.

Before the surgery, the doctors examined and noted the tail contained no parts made of cartilage and bone. This proved the growth was actually a very rare example of a true human tail.

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The case is extremely rare as there have been only 40 documented cases of children being born with true boneless tails.

The report in the medical journal added the 'tail' had grown 12 cm and developed a 4 cm diameter ball at the tip by the time the baby was born at Albert Sabin Children’s Hospital in the city of Fortaleza.