Surgery of girl with eight limbs successful

Doctors in India have successfully operated on an extremely rare case of a two-year-old girl born with four arms, four legs and extra internal organs. A team of around 30 doctors removed what amounted to Lakshmi Tatma's headless identical twin sister who was joined at the pelvis and who did not develop and separate properly in the womb. According to a doctor involved in the surgery at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore in south India, the operation went off well. Lakshmi will be kept in the intensive care for the next 48 hours. The hospital is said to have covered the cost of treatment. Lakshmi, named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, was expected to be in the operating theatre for 40 hours, but the surgery was completed in 27 hours. The doctors said the surgery was worth the risk, as Lakshmi, who could not walk on her deformed limbs, would not otherwise have much chance of living past adolescence. The doctors also said that she could lead a normal life after the operation. Besides the removal of the extra limbs, Lakshmi's deformed pelvis and spine were corrected, and redundant extra organs were removed. Lakshmi's parents are poor labourers from Bihar in northern India. They said that they had refused offers from circus owners to buy their daughter. Now they are praying for their daughter's complete recovery.