Surgeons at the
National Institute of Health in Karachi, Pakistan have announced they
successfully separated four extra limbs from Umar Farooq, a weeks-old infant
who was born with six legs due to a rare congenital disorder, Pakistan news
site Dawn.com reports.
"A team of
five experienced doctors have successfully separated the extra legs and limbs
from the baby [Thursday]. He is very much safe and secure," Jamal Raza,
director of National Institute of the Child Health in Karachi, told Dawn.com.
"The extra limbs and legs were the result of a genetic disease which would
affect only one in a million or more babies."
Farooq was born
two weeks ago in Sukkur, a city in the southern province of Sindh, and was born
to a couple who are cousins, according to the New York Daily News. The infant
was struggling to survive and rushed to the hospital in Karachi, the economic
center of the province.
As doctors
consulted foreign experts on how best to treat the baby, his father, X-ray
technician Imran Shaikh, appealed to the government and various philanthropic
organizations for funding to pay for the medical bills, the Pakistan Observer
reported. Fortunately, the governor of Sindh told doctors that the child's
medical cost would be covered by the government.
"We are a
poor family. I am thankful to the government for helping us treating my
baby," Shaikh told the Observer after the hours-long surgery on Thursday.
Dr. Raza said the
supernumerary limbs are the result of a condition called polymelia, which is
caused when cells don't form properly during embryonic development. He
explained that the baby started out developing as conjoined twins, but then one
of the twins stopped growing and disintegrated except for its legs, which
remained attached to the fetus.
"It was
strange that an apparently abnormal baby with six legs was as normal as other
children," Raza told the International Business Times. "Before
surgeons could operate they said they had to work out which of the limbs
belonged to the boy and which to his twin."
According to a
2010 study in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, the estimated rate of conjoined
twins is 1 per 1 million live births. More cases are seen in Africa and Asia,
where families have less access to prenatal testing.
-Huffington post
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