Surgery on child with 8 limbs successful

by Jonathon Morgan (Subscribe to Jonathon Morgan's posts) Nov 8th 2007 3:34PM

Lakshmi's life has been anything but normal. After being born with four arms and four legs, the two-year-old had to be kept hidden from local villagers who either treated her like a Hindu god, or tried to whisk her away to the circus. However, thanks to a ground-breaking medical procedure, Lakshmi's future now looks much brighter.

The toddler acquired her extra limbs from a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in the womb. Lakshmi, the dominant fetus, absorbed certain body parts from her twin after it ceased to grow, which lead to her incredibly unusual condition.

However, 30 surgeons -- in a procedure that took over 24 hours -- were able to remove the extra limbs, then reconstruct the girl's pelvis. The surgery was a huge success -- meaning that, with any luck, Lakshmi might be able to live a normal life after all.

Source

Comments (2)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Caelligh 11-08-2007 @ 5:44PM

Wonderful! As I understand it, people all over India were praying for her.

Joy 11-08-2007 @ 7:22PM

Wonderfull is right.

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