Young girl to have 'Parasite twin' removed.

[Swany]

Doctors in India have begun a marathon operation on a young girl born with four arms and four legs.

Two year old Lakshmi, named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, is joined to a 'parasitic twin' who stopped developing in her mother's womb.

"They put the risk of losing the baby at about 20 percent, anything between 20 and 25 per cent" - Dr Sharan PatilShe absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped foetus.

The rare condition is called ischiopagus.

Lakshmi will be operated on by a team of 30 doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, who'll work to remove the extra limbs and organs.

The procedure is expected to take up to 48 hours.

Lead surgeon Doctor Sharan Patil admits there is a chance things could go wrong: "They put the risk of losing the baby at about 20 percent, anything between 20 and 25 percent."

Swany - "Words fail me, is it wrong of me to say I find it facinating?"

http://itn.co.uk/news/a3a59692ca38f0...107c47bd2.html

[Raph's Girl]

Why is it that all the multi armed kids are born in India??? LIke that 3 armed baby last year. It seems India is full of mutations like that. From this 4 armed kid to that 3 armed kid...to that baby born with no neck...

[愛]

The only thing exciting about this is the fact that Raph's Girl didn't report it first.

[OA]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

Why is it that all the multi armed kids are born in India??? LIke that 3 armed baby last year. It seems India is full of mutations like that. From this 4 armed kid to that 3 armed kid...to that baby born with no neck...

Yea, and wasn't Goro from India as well...?

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by TMNTerminator

Yea, and wasn't Goro from India as well...?

The guy born pregnant with his own sibling?? Yea.. I believe so.

[Ra]

Yeah, I was about to mention that...only in India, eh?

[VaughnMichael]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

Why is it that all the multi armed kids are born in India??? LIke that 3 armed baby last year. It seems India is full of mutations like that. From this 4 armed kid to that 3 armed kid...to that baby born with no neck...

Yeah when I saw this I was thinking the same exact thing.

[Katie]

They showed an interview with this kid's parents on the news. The baby was being worshiped as an incarnation of that goddess....now she will be normal......

[Ra]

It's funny, since I'm learning about Hinduism right now at school. If they leave her as she is, her name will go down in history as an incarnation of the goddess. I wonder if about 200 years from now, people will view it as evil to have cut off the girl's extra arms and legs? I mean, they thought that Buddha was the incarnation of one of their gods. It can happen...

[Buslady]

that is sad. somethings wrong over there if all these mutations are going on....things aren't very sanitary in the poor areas so who the hec knows......

[Katie]

Originally Posted by Ra

It's funny, since I'm learning about Hinduism right now at school. If they leave her as she is, her name will go down in history as an incarnation of the goddess. I wonder if about 200 years from now, people will view it as evil to have cut off the girl's extra arms and legs? I mean, they thought that Buddha was the incarnation of one of their gods. It can happen...

It's a little more than just arms and legs. I also saw pictures of her. She basically has a headless body coming out of her stomach. The legs and arms move and respond to stimuli....She basically has a headless siamese twin growing out of her.

but still. They gave this kid a 50% chance of coming out of the surgery ok.

[Swany]

Read in the paper this morning. The surgeons have seperated her spines.They believe she has an 80% chance of survival.

[Raph's Girl]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071107/...ia_eight_limbs

Doctors in southern India completed a grueling 24-hour operation Wednesday on a girl born with four arms and four legs that surgeons said will give the 2-year-old a chance at a normal life.

The surgery went "wonderfully well," said Dr. Sharan Patil, who led a team of more than 30 surgeons in performing the marathon procedure to remove Lakshmi's extra limbs, salvage her organs and rebuild her pelvis area.

"This girl can now lead as good a life as anyone else," Patil said from a hospital in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

Lakshmi, who has been revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, was born joined at the pelvis to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in her mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

"This is a very rare occurrence," said Dr. Doug Miniati a pediatric surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the surgery. Miniati said the surgery was extremely complicated but her chances of survival were greater because she was not joined at the heart or brain.

The doctors worked through the night to remove the extra limbs and organs. By midnight, a team of neurologists had separated the fused spines while orthopedic surgeons removed most of the "parasite," carefully identifying which organs and internal structures belonged to the girl, said Patil.

Then began the difficult job of reconstructing Lakshmi's lower body.

The operation included transplanting a good kidney into Lakshmi from the twin. The team also used tissue from the twin to help rebuild the pelvic area, one of the most complicated parts of the surgery, Patil said.

"Beyond our expectations, the reconstruction worked wonderfully well," Patil said. "We were able to bring the pelvic bones together successfully, which takes away the need for another procedure," he said.

However, she will have to have further treatments and possible surgery for clubbed feet before she would be able to walk, he said.

Lakshmi's parents, who were expected to see their daughter later Wednesday, said they were very relieved.

"It will be great to see our daughter have a normal body," her father Shambhu, who only goes by one name, told reporters. "We were worried for her future."

Children born with deformities in deeply traditional rural parts of India, like the remote village in the northern state of Bihar that Lakshmi hails from, are often viewed as reincarnated gods. The young girl is no different — she is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth.

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

Her mother, who is currently pregnant with a healthy fetus, was "overwhelmed," Patil said.

Doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore said they were performing the surgery, which they estimated cost $625,000, for free because the girl's family could not afford the medical bills.

"We are very grateful to all the doctors for seeing our plight and deciding to help us," Shambhu said.

Doctors at the hospital have said that Lakshmi was popular among staff and patients.

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

OMG...A circus wanted to buy her for their freak show! That's just sad... *shakes her fist at Barnum and Bailey*

[Buslady]

the didnt say barnum & bailey wanted to buy her.


poor kid, i hope she lives a full happy life after this. the good thing, she's a kid and kids are tough.

[Swany]

Its great that she got through the operation OK. I thought about her all day.

I only hope the best for her future.

[Hannah]

I love twins, I love deformities and **** like this, I wish her luck though.

[ThirdMarioBro]

Originally Posted by Ai

The only thing exciting about this is the fact that Raph's Girl didn't report it first.

I died laughing.