A Hamilton man has just found out he could have five kidneys, instead of the usual two. Brigham Nordstrom, 28, a law student, made the discovery on Monday when he was admitted to Waikato Hospital with a kidney infection.

"The doctors took a scan. Then I had to get a second one done, they wanted to have another look." Doctors had found one duplex kidney and one triplex kidney. Instead of having one tube or ureter joining each kidney to the bladder, Mr Nordstrom had two tubes on the left and three on the right.

Accordingly, the duplex kidney has two parts and the triplex has three parts, meaning it is quite likely Mr Nordstrom has five kidneys altogether.

Despite his highly unusual innards, Mr Nordstrom said that for 27 years he never knew any difference.

He and his wife, who have a seven-month-old daughter, said urology doctors told them there was nothing to worry about and his health would be unaffected.

Source: Stuff