DOCTORS tonight said they were not sure that a west Oxfordshire man had ‘given birth’ to his twin.

Gavin Hyatt, from Orchard Way, Witney, said doctors told him a lump of flesh which pushed its way through his abdomen was foetal matter left over from a parasitic twin.

But a spokesman for Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, where Mr Hyatt was treated after the ordeal, said doctors did not yet know what the lump consisted of, as no further tests had been carried out.

Mr Hyatt, who today appeared on ITV show This Morning, claimed in an interview he drove himself to a doctor’s surgery as the lump pushed its way through his abdomen.

He added: “Four hospital doctors had previously examined me and were all puzzled by the lump.

“Some thought it was a cyst, others an ingrown hair.

“Then one said it could be my undeveloped identical twin that I absorbed at a very early stage.”

According to the John Radcliffe Hospital, the father of four had been in line for a hernia operation, which was cancelled at the last minute.

A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Mr Hyatt was admitted to a ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital following the sudden appearance of a growth in the area of his navel.

"Only further testing would confirm definitively whether the material removed was of foetal origin or another type of growth.”

The spokesman added: “We wish Mr Hyatt well for the future.”