India:A two-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs was yesterday undergoing surgery by a team of 40 doctors in an operation that the hospital hopes will leave her with a normal body.
The girl, named Lakshmi after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, suffers from ischiopagus, a rare condition which means that she is joined to a "parasitic twin" who stopped developing in the womb.
In the womb the surviving foetus absorbs the limbs, kidneys and other organs.
In Lakshmi's case, the "twins" are joined at the pelvis and have one head and two pairs of arms and legs.
The operation, paid for by one of India's new high-tech, multi-speciality hospitals in Bangalore, is a 40-hour ordeal. Doctors said last night that Lakshmi's condition was stable.
Dr Sharan Patil, the orthopaedic surgeon at Sparsh hospital, which is part of Narayana Health City, told reporters that the first incision was made at 8.45am.
"There were a few unexpected things but we were able to manoeuvre them satisfactorily.
"Things are progressing to our satisfaction and Lakshmi is stable," he said.
Lakshmi was born into a poor family in a remote village in the northern state of Bihar, where locals have venerated her as an incarnation of the Hindu deity.
The operation carries a substantial risk. The surgical staff have to separate not only two spines but also the two stomachs, four kidneys and two chest cavities.
Doctors admit there is a 20 per cent risk that Lakshmi will not survive.
"The complex surgery is being carried out to remove the extraneous parts very carefully and move up all structures into Lakshmi without causing any harm," Dr Patil said.
Conjoined twins occur in about one in every 200,000 births.
Lakshmi's type occurs in 3 per cent of all conjoined babies.