Girl With Eight Limbs Undergoes Surgery

[The Voice]

By KASHIF MASOOD, AP Posted: 2007-11-06 11:52:56


BANGALORE, India (Nov. 6) - Doctors began operating Tuesday on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal body, a hospital official said.

The girl is joined to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in the mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

Lakshmi, 2, was born with four arms and four legs after fusing with a "parasitic twin" in the womb. On Tuesday, a team of 30 doctors at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, India, began a marathon surgery to remove her extra parts.

The girl, Lakshmi, is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, and some in her village in the northern state of Bihar revere her.

"Everybody considers her a goddess at our village," said her father, Shambhu, who goes by one name. "All this expenditure has happened to make her normal. So far, everything is fine."

Others sought to make money from Lakshmi. Her parents kept her in hiding after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, they said.

The complications for Lakshmi's surgery are myriad: The two spines are merged, she has four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities. She cannot stand up or walk.

"It's a big team effort of a lot of skilled surgeons who will be putting their heart and soul into solving the problem of Lakshmi," said Dr. Sharan Patil, the lead surgeon in the operation. "It's going to take many, many hours on a continuous basis to operate on the baby. So, these issues definitely make it complex."

Patil put the risk of losing Lakshmi between 20 and 25 percent.

Doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, where Lakshmi is undergoing surgery, said she is popular among the medical staff and other patients.

"She's a very cute girl," Dr. Patil Mamatha said. "She's very playful and gets along well with others."

The hospital's foundation is paying for the operation because the girl's family could not afford the medical bills, Mamatha said. A team of 30 doctors was participating in the surgery.


Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
2007-11-06 08:18:45

Source and additonal images: http://news.aol.com/story/_a/girl-wi...00010000000001

[Holls]

Oh that poor girl...she's so adorable, too. I hope the surgery goes good. That makes me sick that the parents had to hide her because the circus wanted to buy her. She's not some freak.

[Cereal-Killa]

You've heard of Spiderman... Now meet... SPIDERGIRL.

[Hyphy[510]]

It's ironic she was born in India o.0

[twinkle toez]

well greatfully she can be helped the poor kid!

[ßäbý ®ü±h]

That's pretty crazy that she was born with as many limbs as the goddess.
Of course I'd want my child to have a good life, but depending how religious I was, I would almost not want to her to have the surgery.
That's like, really crazy... thinking that you could have given birth to a goddess.
Even though I don't personally believe in that, I'm sure many people do and would and probably think it's wrong for her parents to get rid of those limbs.
Wow.
Crazy.

[Will]

Ouch, how sad...

[Kiari]

Originally Posted by The Voice

By KASHIF MASOOD, AP Posted: 2007-11-06 11:52:56


BANGALORE, India (Nov. 6) - Doctors began operating Tuesday on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal body, a hospital official said.

The girl is joined to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in the mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

Lakshmi, 2, was born with four arms and four legs after fusing with a "parasitic twin" in the womb. On Tuesday, a team of 30 doctors at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, India, began a marathon surgery to remove her extra parts.

The girl, Lakshmi, is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, and some in her village in the northern state of Bihar revere her.

"Everybody considers her a goddess at our village," said her father, Shambhu, who goes by one name. "All this expenditure has happened to make her normal. So far, everything is fine."

Others sought to make money from Lakshmi. Her parents kept her in hiding after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, they said.

The complications for Lakshmi's surgery are myriad: The two spines are merged, she has four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities. She cannot stand up or walk.

"It's a big team effort of a lot of skilled surgeons who will be putting their heart and soul into solving the problem of Lakshmi," said Dr. Sharan Patil, the lead surgeon in the operation. "It's going to take many, many hours on a continuous basis to operate on the baby. So, these issues definitely make it complex."

Patil put the risk of losing Lakshmi between 20 and 25 percent.

Doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, where Lakshmi is undergoing surgery, said she is popular among the medical staff and other patients.

"She's a very cute girl," Dr. Patil Mamatha said. "She's very playful and gets along well with others."

The hospital's foundation is paying for the operation because the girl's family could not afford the medical bills, Mamatha said. A team of 30 doctors was participating in the surgery.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.


2007-11-06 08:18:45

Source and additonal images: http://news.aol.com/story/_a/girl-wi...00010000000001

If that happened to me, I would completely want to keep my extra limbs. That'd be so awesome. I could run really fast and punch really fast....as long as everything opperated the same.

[Cherries in the snow]

The girl is joined to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in the mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

That is so creepy. It's like someone else is living in her skin with her. I hope the operation is a success.

Originally Posted by Kiari

If that happened to me, I would completely want to keep my extra limbs. That'd be so awesome. I could run really fast and punch really fast....as long as everything opperated the same.

The two spines are merged, she has four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities. She cannot stand up or walk.

......................

[ßäbý ®ü±h]

Success!