2 Year Old Born With 8 Limbs Survives Surgery
2 year old – Lakshmi – was born with four arms and four legs. She was born joined at the pelvis to her “parasitic twin”. This ‘twin’ stopped developing while in her mother’s womb and the surviving fetus (Lakshmi) absorbed the limbs, kidney, and other parts of the undeveloped fetus.
She was given extensive surgery to remove the extra limbs and seems to have come out ok. The doctors stated that she gave them signs of movement on Thursday which is a very good sign. Lakshmi, was being kept sedated in the intensive care unit at a hospital in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.
“Lakshmi has moved her toes and hands for the first time and opened her eyes briefly,” Dr. Sharan Patil, the head surgeon, told reporters. “She is progressing in the right direction,” he said. Patil said doctors were slowly reducing the amount of sedatives, but she was still breathing on a respirator.
Doctors were still cautious, however. “She is a 2-year-old girl who has undergone massive surgery, we have to watch and wait,” said Dr. Mamatha Patil, a Sparsh Hospital spokeswoman. On Wednesday, a team of more than 30 surgeons conducted the operation — which lasted more than 24 hours — removing the extra limbs, transplanting a kidney from the twin and reconstructing her pelvic area in the hope she would be able to lead a normal life.
Lakshmi will need further treatments and possible surgery for clubbed feet before she will be able to walk, Sharan Patil said. Her father, Shambhu had told reporters that her family had been worried for her future before the operation and he was looking forward to seeing her with “a normal body.”