INDIA:Indian surgeons successfully separated a two-year-old girl from a conjoined headless twin and reconstructed her body yesterday in a gruelling operation lasting nearly 27 hours.
Born with four arms and four legs but a single head, Lakshmi was under observation at the intensive care unit of Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore in southern India after the operation.
Named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi was born fused to her conjoined "parasitic twin", who stopped developing in the womb and was attached to her at the pelvis.
Lakshmi had absorbed the organs and body parts of the undeveloped foetus, a condition that occurs on average once in every 50,000 conjoined twin births, requiring doctors to separate the parts in a delicate operation.
"She has withstood the operation. She is safe and doing well," said Dr Sharan Patil, the surgeon who led the medical team.
"We will keep a close watch on her for the next 48 to 72 hours and won't move from the hospital until she stabilises."
Thirty-six doctors covering a range of specialities from paediatrics to plastic surgery were involved in the operation, which gave a possible lease of life to Lakshmi, who doctors said would have been unlikely to grow into her teens with her condition.
The initial separation of the parasitic parts was completed late on Tuesday night, while yesterday's work was devoted to a second stage of pelvic reconstruction and skin cell replacement.
One of the girl's kidneys was in both bodies, requiring doctors to transfer the organ from the parasitic structure into the main body.
Lakshmi was brought by her poor labourer parents from eastern Bihar state to the hospital, which is bearing the cost of the operation, estimated at Rs 2.4 million (€41,000).
Doctors yesterday said Lakshmi had an 80 per cent chance of surviving the procedure.