Bangalore: Doctors began operating on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs on Tuesday in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal body, a hospital official said.
The girl is joined to a ''parasitic twin'' that stopped developing in the mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.
The girl, Lakshmi, is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, and some in her village in the northern state of Bihar revere her as a goddess.
Others sought to make money from her. Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam, hid her after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. The members of the family only go by their first names.
Doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, where Lakshmi is undergoing surgery, said she is popular among the medical staff and other patients.
''She's a very cute girl,'' said Dr. Patil Mamatha of Sparsh Hospital. ''She's very playful and gets along well with others.''
The complications for Lakshmi's surgery are myriad: The two spines are merged, the girl has four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities. She cannot stand up or walk.
The hospital's foundation is paying for the operation because the girl's family could not afford the medical bills, Mamatha said. A team of 30 doctors was participating in the surgery.
