Once upon a time…there was a girl with eight limbs.
December 18, 2007 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Children, Health, Medicine, Misc., Morning News, Oddities, Surgery, Technology, Video, disability
Meet Lakshmi Tatma, a two year old Indian girl born with an extra four limbs.
The people of her rural Indian village did not see this as a deformity. They believed that she was a ‘gift from God’, christened her ‘Lakshmi‘ after the four-armed Hindu Goddess of wealth, and queued outside the house to be blessed by the girl.
But the actual cause of the extra limbs was that the girl had a twin who hadn’t fully developed and instead became attached to Lakshmi’s body at the pelvis.
Lakshmi made headlines around the world last month when a team of surgeons spent 27 hours removing the extra limbs, separating her spinal cord and kidney from the twin, re-orientating the bladder and genital systems, and then closing up the pelvic girdle.
Prior to surgery, Lakshmi had been unable to walk or crawl and had little chance living past adolescence.
Now she can stand with help and is expected to be able to walk and led a normal life.
No wonder she (and her family) were smiling as they left the hospital the other day.
Ain’t medical science and technology great…
HELLO LAKSHMI TATMA GOD BLESS YOU .BEAUTIFUL SMILE U R AN ANGEL .BRAVE GIRL .HOPE TO MEET U SOME DAY.