www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21652326/
Before you read this article, click the link and take a look at the picture to the far right. She looks like an octopus.
Quote:
8-limbed girl's surgery a spectacular success
2-year-old Indian girl stable after being separated from her 'parasitic twin'Lakshmi, second from left, sits in her mother Poonam's lap as she poses next to her father Shambhu and brother Mithilesh, right, at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, India, on Nov. 5. Doctors began operating Nov. 6 on the two-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs.
BANGALORE, India - A grueling, 24-hour-long operation to remove the extra limbs of an Indian girl born with four arms and four legs was a spectacular success, leaving her in stable cosndition, doctors announced Wednesday.
A team of more than 30 physicians successfully removed the 2-year-old's extra limbs, salvaged her organs, and rebuilt her pelvis area, Dr. Sharan Patil said from a hospital in the southern Indian city of Bangalore.
"Beyond our expectations, the reconstruction worked wonderfully well," said Patil, the lead orthopedic surgeon during the operation.
The girl, named Lakshmi, is revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.
Lakshmi was born joined 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.
The complications for Lakshmi's surgery were myriad: She was born with four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities. She cannot stand up or walk.
The surgery also included separating the fused spines, Patil said. "Every step was successful. There was no setback whatsoever."
Patil said Lakshmi's family was "overwhelmed," and they expected to see her Wednesday afternoon. She will stay in the hospital for observation for several days.
Doctors anticipated an especially difficult challenge would be rebuilding Lakshmi's pelvis, but that went smoothly also. "We were able to bring the pelvic bones together successfully, which takes away the need for another procedure," Patil said.
Viewed as a reincarnated god
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."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.
Doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore said she is popular among the staff and patients. The hospital's foundation paid for the operation because the girl's family could not afford the medical bills.
"She's a very cute girl," hospital spokeswoman Dr. Patil Mamatha said. "She's very playful and gets along well with others."
She really does look like a human octopus. .____.
