Q: My cousin's daughter is a month old. Unfortunately she was born with 5 incomplete fingers of the left hand. There are 5 round digits rather than fingers and even her palm is a little shorter than the right hand's palm which is perfect. They have consulted 2 doctors so far but none of them is ready to get her x-ray done till she is 3 months old. So the exact internal position of bones can't be defined till the time her x-ray is done. They are not sure whether she has joints inside those digits. We have heard that some hospital in India can perform a transplant of such fingers, by using other child's fingers. What else can be done with her fingers? The child is very healthy! Which hospital in India can perform this treatment?

A:I do not think there is any rush to get an x-ray done. There is no possibility of transplanting fingers from another child. Fortunately, this is only one affected hand and that too the left one, so functionally your child will be fine. Later, if necessary, an operation may be done to reconstruct a digit from the existing ray of bone so that she may be able to grasp with the left hand also.