BANGALORE, INDIA — Doctors in southern India completed a grueling 24-hour operation Wednesday on a girl born with four arms and four legs that surgeons said will give the 2-year-old a chance at a normal life.
The surgery went “wonderfully well,” said Dr. Sharan Patil, who led more than 30 surgeons to remove Lakshmi’s extra limbs, salvage her organs and rebuild her pelvis area.
He cautioned that Lakshmi was not out of danger.
“We are still not ready to celebrate as she will be in the critical zone for the next 48 to 72 hours,” the doctor said.
Lakshmi, who has been revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess she was named for, was born joined at the pelvis to a “parasitic twin” that stopped developing in her mother’s womb. She is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth.
The Associated Press
