A TWO-YEAR-OLD Indian girl who was born with four arms and four legs is making a good recovery after a marathon operation last week, doctors said overnight. "She is more or less stable now but her wounds have to heal still," said Sharan Patil, who led the team of surgeons that completed the 27-hour procedure last Thursday.Lakshmi, named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, was born fused to the pelvis of the twin that stopped developing in her mother's womb.
"Infection is still an issue because she is so little," Dr Patil said. "We will decide tomorrow when to move her from the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)."
Lakshmi is cheerful and has been spending time with her father, Shambhu, mother Poonam, and older brother Mithelesh over the past two days, responding well to interaction with her family and hospital staff, said the surgeon. She is able to eat semi-solid food such as rice pancakes and soft breads after regaining consciousness and being taken off a respirator on Saturday, Dr Patil said.
In the rare, risky operation, the first of its kind to be performed in India, doctors separated Lakshmi from the organs and body parts of the other foetus, a condition that occurs once in 50,000 conjoined twin births.
Her parents, from a remote district in poverty-stricken eastern Bihar state, brought her to Bangalore after a New Delhi hospital refused to perform the operation saying the case was too complex and the cost prohibitive. The surgery, which cost 2.4 million rupees ($66,340), was performed free by the Bangalore hospital.