Girl with 8 limbs faces surgery
BANGALORE, India (AP ) — Doctors began operating on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs Tuesday in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal anatomy, a hospital official said.
The girl is joined to a parasitic twin who stopped developing in the mother’s womb, while the surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus. The rare condition is called isciopagus.
The girl, Lakshmi, is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, and some in her poor village in the northern state of Bihar revere her as a goddess.
Others sought to make money from her. Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam, hid her after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. The members of the family go only by their first names.
Doctors are working to remove the extra limbs and organs so she’ll have a normal anatomy at the end of the operation, said Dr. Patil Mamatha of Sparsh Hospital. Surgery, aimed at removing the extra limbs and organs, began early Tuesday morning.
The hospital’s foundation is paying for the operation because the girl’s family could not afford the medical bills, said Mamatha. A team of 30 doctors will participate in the surgery. E-mail to a friend
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