On the surface Workitu Debebet looks like any other teenage girl. But the 17-year-old has spent her young life hiding an incredible secret -- a parasitic twin, including two arms and two legs, fused to her pelvis. Workitu was raised thinking she was normal and reached her late teens without treatment because her poor parents had no way of accessing expert medical care. But Workitu's life has finally been transformed after a team of expert surgeons performed pioneering surgery to separate her from her unborn conjoined twin.

Now, the teenager is going to school and making friends for the first time and is looking forward to having a career, getting married and even having children of her own. A new documentary series reveals the amazing courage of Workitu and her family who tried everything to help her, despite prejudice in her community against people with disabilities. Doctors at CURE Hospital In Addis Ababa were amazed when they saw Workitu, who is thought to be the oldest person still to be living with a visible parasitic twin attached to their body.

Dr Eric Gokcen, the hospital's medical director, said: "It was something I had never seen before. A parasitic twin is actually rarer than conjoined twins. But as a physician, when I look at patients with a problem, my mind starts thinking about what I am going to do to help them." In an eight-hour surgery, the team carefully removed the outer body but left the extra internal organs because they were working fine. Workitu spent the next three months in hospital but healed perfectly and is now looking forward to her future. Workitu's story appears in Born With An Extra Body: Body Bizarre at 10pm on TLC UK on Monday November 25th.

Secret Twin: Body Bizarre Episode 3

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Category: Amazing Fact

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