An Indiana woman woke up from brain surgery to some incredible news: What doctors through was a tumor was actually a teratoma — her embryonic twin complete with bone, hair, and teeth.
Yamini Karanam took the bombshell well, joking that the teratoma is her "evil twin sister who's been torturing me for the past 26 years." She's relieved that after months of having difficulty reading, listening, and even following a conversation, she'll soon be able to function properly again, especially after hearing differing opinions from several neurologists. "I'm like, could someone be educated about this?" she said.
Her frustration took her to Los Angeles, where she met Dr. Hrayr Shahinian, who uses a minimally invasive technique to get deep inside a patient's brain. "We want to be in and out without the brain knowing we were there, and I think that's the beauty of this technique," he told NBC Los Angeles. While Karanam's condition is rare, it's not the doctor's first time seeing a teratoma. "This is my second one, and I've probably taken out 7,000 or 8,000 brain tumors," he said.
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