Surgery On Multi-Limbed Girl A Success

Doctors In India Say 2-Year-Old Is Safe And Stable After 24-Hour Operation

(CBS/AP)  An extensive operation on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs went "wonderfully well" doctors said Wednesday as they announced that she is safe and stable after more than 24 hours of surgery.

A team of 30 doctors successfully removed the child's extra limbs, salvaged her organs, and rebuilt her pelvis area, Dr. Sharan Patil said Wednesday from a Bangalore hospital.

"Beyond our expectations, the reconstruction worked wonderfully well," Patil said.

The girl, named Lakshmi, had been revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.

Lakshmi was born joined to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in the mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

The doctors worked through the night to remove the extra limbs and organs, surgery that doctors say will give her a good chance to live past adolescence. The procedure included separating the fused spines along with removing the extra limbs and the rest of the "parasite," said Patil, the orthopedic surgeon leading the operation.

Children born with deformities in deeply traditional rural parts of India, like the remote village in the northern state of Bihar that Lakshmi hails from, are often viewed as reincarnated gods. The young girl is no different - she is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth.

"Everybody considers her a goddess at our village," said her father, Shambhu, who goes by one name. "All this expenditure has happened to make her normal. So far, everything is fine."

[fibonacci_]

Yea, I can kind of understand your point there. It is a common internet phenomenon, the lack of sensitivity.

Just realize that I am speaking out against something that I truly believe causes problems in the world. I have a right to say that, just as they can call me a sinner for not believing and tell me Im going to hell as they often do, OK? I firmly believe religion is the biggest enemy of free thought man has ever known. I think it is unfair that kids have religion forced on them too. Most times the parents dont say things they should like "you have a great mind and you can decide for yourself what to believe".

[mythoughtsr]

You make some good points but sound equally arrogant yourself.


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Posted by fibonacci

Arrogant? Probably, but more angry at reading some of the stuff that winds up in these threads. My goodness, why can''t people be a tad bit more sensitive. Sure, it''s only a message board on a news site, but there might be other families suffering like this or the family themselves (yeah I know in this case probably not because of where they are from but still). A lot of times when I read this board and read some of the posts, I''m floored by the lack of caring and compassion so I''m pretty much speaking from the heart but out of anger.

[fibonacci_]

You make some good points but sound equally arrogant yourself.

[mythoughtsr]

"The girl, named Lakshmi, had been revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess."

- This shows the level of thinking of religious people.


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Posted by fibonacci

You know what fibonacci, not everyone is as fancy and sophisticated as you. Some people have deeply rooted religious beliefs and believe in things other than your perfect world. There are people who believe that statues cry and images appear. There are those who believe in ghosts, UFOs, gods you name it. Who are you to chastise them, ridicule them? Stop trying to be so perfect, you embarrass yourself.

On a more realistic note, I am so glad the little girl recovered. I can''t imagine what her family has been through and what wonderful doctors who are helping this beautiful little girl and giving her a chance at a normal life.

[fibonacci_]

"The girl, named Lakshmi, had been revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess."

- This shows the level of thinking of religious people.

[likeabllunch]

'' ... i met god, she speaks to me by meddling in the lives of others, and then tells me that there is infinite divergence and that i am as much a god as is she, and that neither of us has any real power over each other or anyone else and vice versa ... if i''m hurt against my will, she says, then it is not truly against my will: there is inadequacy / uncertainty / etc in my heart, i''m having a bad dream, she says ... ''

[likeabllunch]

'' ... there was first aid on the trail, followed by inkblot sport and puzzle, followed by sell art basketball, followed by the evolved book rental shop: the yseedsberry, created to replace book rental with local information exchange, computerized bulletin boards gave way to the internet which made finding local solutions to local problems and local answers to local questions difficult, a community center dedicated to local people shopping for local bargains or jobs or homework help made a tolerable idea for a replacement ... enter ''rally round the sick beds'': and now the 300 county shopping malls are a collection of homes where the sick beds converge and the vendors around the sick beds cutting and pasting their blooms and other inventorys before hiking / bussing on to the next shopping mall / village ... ''

'' ... the few and proud run scream and citate and the job is dangerous; yet, they are 99.9999 plus percent less likely to be injured or killed as a result of disciplinary action than a small child ... ''

'' ... there should be wide arrays of input devices for playing with screen pixels ... perhaps user friendly impromptu local / task specific web browsers could be employed to facilitate the creation and maintenance of masses of web pages for individual sites utilizing gui toolboxes of object oriented routines and pan and zoom you-are-here maps and impromptu task specific ''jargon keycode'' character systems and other languages ... ''

[momtofour-2009]

With regard to the old argument of Science vs. Creation -I do not believe that they are mutally exclusive - if I were not limited in my comments here, I could give you many examples of where science PROVES creationism, rather than disproving it. One such way is the exactness/precision of the rotation/orbit and the distance of the earth around the sun - do you really think a "big Bang" or "accident" caused that precision? Another way science proves the concept of creation is evolution - which is the product of an intelligent mind, however, I do not believe that man evoluted from apes - if that were the case, there would no longer be any apes, or if there were, they would eventually evolute into humans (this is simple logic). A story attributed to Ben Franklin has him building an exact model of the plantary system. An atheist comes up to him and asks, "who made this - it''s wonderful", to which Ben replies "no one - it''s an accident". The atheist says, "that''s ridiculous, how could it be an accident?" - at which point, Ben says, "well you can''t believe that this model is an accident, but you believe an accident caused the entire universe in all it''s complexity and beauty - how do you explain that?" There was no answer from the atheist. With regard to the child, whose deformity was more than likely caused by environmental factors which is man''s fault, not God''s. He gave us a gift - free will - which atheists are enjoying by denouncing Him.

[momtofour-2009]

shanev137: All your ranting & raving about God & children brought up some questions for me: Were you hatched full grown? If not, did you hate yourself? Did your parents hate children as much as you?

[chadnnik]

I am truly suprised at some of these posts. How does a child''s life (and her life WAS in danger), cause the hatred espoused here?

Have we not all enjoyed the benefits of science? You could argue that being created in God''s image has given man the capability to help others, or you could argue that man has evolved into a creature that can help others. Either way, its what puts us above the other animals of this world.

By saying that its sacrilegious to remove those appendages reminds me of how twins used to be killed because they were thought to be evil. We''ve learned alot since then, haven''t we?