Family whose newborn had unusual brain tumor on 'Today'

In the first nationally televised interview since The Gazette broke the story on the Pikes Peak Health blog, the Esquibel family of Colorado Springs will tell the "Today" show their story on Tuesday, according to Memorial Health System.

"Today" airs from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. locally on NBC. The show is watched by about 5 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Sam Esquibel was born Oct. 1 with a congenital brain tumor that threatened his life. Three days later, when Memorial Hospital for Children's pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Paul Grabb went in to remove the tumor, he found a foot and other partially developed appendages.

"It looked like the breach delivery of a baby coming out of the brain," he told The Gazette at the time. The tumor had characteristics of both a teratoma - a tumor composed of other bodily tissue such as hair and bone - and a fetus in fetu - a partially formed fetus that develops inside its twin. Both conditions are rare, and Grabb suspects few, if any doctors, have seen anything like this one.

Read more from the Pikes Peak Health blog.