The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Team of doctors start operating on Lakshmi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Team of doctors start operating on Lakshmi

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: It looks like two-year-old Lakshmi, the eight-limbed girl from Bihar, may finally be liberated from her parasitic twin.

The girl, who was brought to the Sparsh Hospital at Narayana Health City here from a remote village of Araria in Bihar by her parents for treatment, was taken in for surgery at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

The team of doctors operating on her are happy with the results of the procedures up till now and are hopeful that the surgery will be over well ahead of the stipulated 40 hours.

“Lakshmi is doing well. There have been no major complications during the surgery. One of the major achievements is that we have been able to separate her spinal cord from that of the conjoined twin and have also disconnected her pelvis,” said Yohannan John, senior anaesthetist and part of the medical team.

Dr. John said that the doctors operating on the child were now reconstructing her pelvis and hip region and giving shape to her waist.

Lakshmi is a unique case of conjoined twins, but with a difference. She has two bodies united at the pelvis but only one has a head and the other is a parasite. Two pairs of arms and legs have formed at either end of the two adjoining torsos, creating a child with eight limbs.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka