Strange: Woman Finds Out Her Headaches Were Caused by the 'Evil Twin' Growing Inside Her Brain

A 26-year-old woman who underwent surgery in Los Angeles to remove a brain tumor was shocked to learn that what had actually been causing her symptoms was her embryonic twin, buried deep in her brain.

Shortly after moving to the U.S. from India, Yamini Karanam began to have trouble understanding things she read. Things only went downhill from there. Before long, she started suffering horrible headaches and struggled to comprehend more than one person talking at a time. She went to doctor after doctor, trying to figure out what was wrong and documenting the process at length on her blog.


The diagnosis? It appeared to be a cyst on her pineal gland. But that cyst continued to grow, and soon Karanam was left unable to walk. In a last bid to save her life, Karanam's friends set up a fundraising account to raise money to pay for a procedure that could remove the tumor.

They raised $32,437 before Karanam flew to Los Angeles to meet with Dr. Hrayr Shahinian at the Skullbase Institute, where he performed a delicate "keyhole surgery" to treat the tumor.

 But what he found was no tumor. It was a teratoma: a mass of bone, hair and teeth, the remains of Karanam's embryonic twin – or, as Karanam referred to it, the "evil twin sister who's been torturing me for the past 26 years," NBC News reports.

Now that her twin is gone, however, Karanam finds herself feeling a little nostalgic. "I was stuck with it much longer than I thought," she told The Washington Post. "It doesn't leave you much choice other than to deal with it the best you can."

Doctors say she's expected to make a full recovery.