Girl undergoes surgery to remove extra limbs
India ? Revered by some in her village as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs was undergoing surgery Tuesday to leave her with a normal body.
The girl named Lakshmi 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.
A team of 30 doctors was removing the extra limbs and organs, surgery that if successful would give her a good chance to live past adolescence, said Dr. Sharan Patil, the orthopedic surgeon leading the operation.
Children born with deformities in deeply traditional rural parts of India, like the remote village in the northern state of Bihar that Lakshmi hails from, are often viewed as reincarnated gods. The young girl is no different – she is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth and her parents say she is revered in her village.

