Lakshmi

BANGALORE - Toddler born with eight limbs, 4 arms and 4 legs, undergone life-saving operation. The extraordinary eight-limbed baby was born in a tiny village in Arhariya in the central Indian state of Bihar - said to be on the day devoted to the celebration of the four-armed Hindu deity Vishnu.

The toddler born with eight limbs and believed by some to be the
reincarnation of the multi-limbed Hindu goddess Vishnu,
undergo a 40-hour operation to remove half of her limbs.



The girl is joined to a 'parasitic twin' who stopped developing in
the mother's womb, while the surviving foetus absorbed the limbs,
kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped foetus. The
headless 'twin' is joined to Lakshmi at the pelvis and has its own
spinal column and kidney.












An X-ray picture shows how the two
bodies are joined at the pelvis

Lakshmi Tatma had gone under the operationss at the hands of 30
surgeons to remove two of her useless arms and legs.
Without the operation the little girl would never be able to walk
or crawl and would be unlikely to live past her early teens.
Dr Sharan Patil, who will be leading the surgery at the country's
Narayana Health City, in Bangalore, said: "Fortunately, Lakshmi
has one complete body with a near perfect set of organs.

"Her skeletal system involves two bodies which are fused together
at the level of the pelvis. The operation itself, although presents several challenges, is
not the most complex in the world. What is highly unusual in Lakshmi's case is precisely how her bodies are fused, almost mirroring each other."

Parents Poonam Devi and Shambu Das, who earn about 50p a day as
casual labourers, were turned away from several hospitals before
her plight was taken up by Dr Patil.

Poonam, who gave birth to Lakshmi on the celebration day of the
four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity after whom the
new born was named, said: "She is a miracle, a special blessing
from God."

The operation is expected to cost more thant US$100,000.
Surgeons have successfully removed the extra limbs from the
two-year-old girl in a gruelling operation that lasted more than a day