Extra Limbs Gone, Baby Lakshmi Says Hello

2-Year-Old Indian Girl Doing Well After 24-Hour Operation; Docs Optimistic, More Surgery Needed

(CBS/AP)  Nearly a week after surgeons removed the extra limbs from an Indian girl born with four arms and four legs, the bright-eyed 2-year-old made her first public appearance Tuesday after leaving the hospital's intensive care unit.

Swathed in blankets and lying on her father's lap, the girl, named Lakshmi, appeared before reporters without the extra limbs which had led some people in her rural village to revere her as an incarnation of the four-armed goddess she was named after.

Looking healthy and alert, Lakshmi had both of her legs in casts while her arms were free. After sitting for photographs, her parents quickly ushered her off the stage without speaking to reporters.

Lakshmi's doctors were encouraged by her progress and said she was responding well enough to treatment to leave the hospital's intensive care unit.

Everything seems to be working right -- cardiac, the nervous system, respiratory system, and her G.I. system, reports Dave Price of CBS' The Early Show.

"She is coping very well and she is stable," said chief surgeon Dr. Sharan Patil. "Lakshmi is safe at the moment."

Lakshmi had a 25 percent chance of not even surviving the surgery, reports Price.

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

A team of more than 30 surgeons finished a 24-hour operation last Wednesday at a hospital in the southern city of Bangalore. They removed the extra limbs, transplanted a kidney from the twin and reconstructed Lakshmi's pelvic area.

Lakshmi has begun eating solid food again and has been off her respirator since Friday, Patil said.

But despite her swift progress, Patil cautioned that Lakshmi still had a long way to go toward a full recovery.

"We still have things to do, but so far, so good," he said.

Lakshmi will need further treatment and possible surgery for clubbed feet before she will be able to walk. Her wounds from surgery are still healing and Patil said they will continue to monitor her closely.

The casts on her legs are intended to keep her inverted feet straight and the legs together.

He did not say when she might be able to return home.

Children born with deformities in rural India like the remote village in the northern state of Bihar where Lakshmi comes from are often viewed as reincarnated gods.

Her father, Shambhu, who only goes by one name, had told reporters that her family had been worried for her future before the operation and that he was looking forward to seeing her with "a normal body."

[toolmangler-2009]

Imagine, how Indian people in India thinks about WESTENERS when they read daily about.....
12-14 year olds kids are murdering 10-12 years in school.... almost regularly.

I hope you get the point.
Posted by IamPundit at 02:27 PM : Nov 13, 2007



Noida, Uttar Pradesh: Police found skeletons of eight children in a village in Noida, near Delhi, on Friday and claimed the man who raped and murdered them has confessed.

Satish, 30, was a domestic help in a house near which the bodies were found stuffed in gunny bags and buried in a drain. At least 38 children have disappeared in Nithari in Noida%u2019s Sector 31 in the last two years.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/061229/211/6aolb.html


I hope ''you'' gotm the point!!!

[indiranarine]

It is sad to see this unfortunate events which have happened to little Lakshmi develop into such defamation of the character of mainemade by IamPundit.
Before attempting educate other people he should learn how to spell simple words and review his poor diction.

On a lighter note it is excellent to see local doctors perform such a complicated surgery successfully without the intervention of foreign doctor. Kudos to the medical team and all other persons involved in helping baby Lakshmi.

Get well soon Lakshmi you are still a gift from God as are all of our children.

[agarwal1]

mainemade,

Here an education on culture always a good idea before we start talking rediculous.

Most of the Indian people names are after some God name. It is in the Hindu culture to be very devoted to God in every aspect. It CERTAINLY DOES NOT mean that they all look like some God.

Some people who are UNEDUCATED, STUPID are the one who start worshipping something or somebody that looks like some mythical God. We find STUPID weired people in every form all over the world.

Before or after surgery, a child will alwyas be looked by parents, well wisher and normal good natured people as a "Beautiful creation of God".

mainemade .... when you reading and keeping the fact in your mind that "those Indian people view her as God...." mainemade .... also keep in your mind that the doctors who did that complicated operations WERE ALSO INDIAN.

Imagine, how Indian people in India thinks about WESTENERS when they read daily about.....

12-14 year olds kids are murdering 10-12 years in school.... almost regularly.

10-12 years are having ***

people are killing other innocent people "just for fun"

jeffery dahmer ate people....

I hope you get the point.

[mainemade]

All the articles I have read about this beautiful girl state she is named after a reincarnated God. Will she still be viewed as such now that the extra limbs are removed?

Get well soon child, and God Bless!