Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Parasitic Twin



There is a condition called ischiopagus where a person can be born with multiple arms and legs. It happens when rather than fully developed conjoined twins being formed, one of the twins does not develop. Thus the multiple legs and arms on a single torso.

There is currently such a case in India. A potentially conjoined twin stopped developing in the womb leaving a little girl with multiple arms and legs.



From the x-ray you can see where the undeveloped twin is joined at the pelvis. The little girl is named after the Hindu goddess Lakshmi who had four arms. Lakshmi is going to undergo a 40 hour surgury in attempt to remove the extra limbs. The operation will utilize 30 surgeons undergoing 8 hr. shifts and is estimated to cost about 100,000 pounds. The very high risk surgury is explained here.

The cute little girl looks very happy in the pictures of her and her family. I wish them all the best.