The surgery on Lakshmi, who was born with four arms and four legs in an extremely rare condition, began at about 8:00 am local time (0230 GMT) Tuesday in Sparsh Hospital near Bangalore in southern India.
"The kid is doing fine," said Mamatha Patil, a doctor and spokeswoman at Sparsh Hospital. "The surgery is still going on." Patil did not elaborate, saying she was awaiting more details from doctors involved in the extremely complex surgery. The operation is expected to take up to 40 hours. Thirty-six doctors covering a range of specialities from paediatrics to plastic surgery are involved in the operation.
Doctors said Tuesday that Lakshmi, named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, had an 80 percent chance of surviving the procedure. "It has been so far so good," hospital spokesman Siva Rudrayya said late Tuesday. "She is responding well, although there were a lot of complications."
Lakshmi was fused to the headless conjoined twin, known as a "parasitic twin," at the pelvis. She had absorbed the organs and body parts of the undeveloped foetus, a condition that occurs once in 50,000 twin births. The first part of the surgery, the separation of the parasitic parts, was scheduled to have been completed Tuesday night, doctors had said, while Wednesday's work would be devoted to a second stage -- pelvic reconstruction and skin cell replacement.
Lakshmi was brought to Bangalore by her parents Shambhu, a manual labourer from eastern Bihar state, and Poonam, for the surgery. The hospital is treating her for free.
Source: news.yahoo.com
