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Marathon Surgery Successfully Completed on 'Parasitic Conjoined Twin'

by VR Sreeraman on Nov 7 2007 2:51 PM

Lakshmi, a two-year-old girl with eight limbs, has successfully come out of a 40-hour long complicated surgery that separated her from her ’parasitic conjoined twin’.

A team of over 30 neurosurgeons successfully operated on Lakshmi’s fused spine.

’The surgery has been successful and Lakshmi is stable,’ said a doctor at the Sparsh Hospital, Bangalore, in Southern India.

Lakshmi, who is presently in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, is under observation for a few more days.

Her parents are being provided with updates and do hope their daughter will lead a normal life like other children.

Laxmi’s parents received help from Dr. Sharan Patil, who agreed to operate on the child free of cost.

A team of 36 doctors, including 16 specialists, began the operation on Tuesday morning.

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Laxmi is a case of an Ischiopagus Tetrapus, or twin joined at the pelvis.

The incidence of such conjoined twins is one in 50,000.

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Dr. Patil said the head of the other twin was missing, which made it a parasite.

Doctors faced the challenge of removing the parasite from Laxmi’s body.

Laxmi was born to a poor family in a small village in Bihar’s Araria District.

Villagers initially considered her an incarnation of Goddess Laxmi, but after sometime realised she was unwell and needed help.

Source-ANI
SRM/L


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