Goddess or Medical Marvel? (The Girl With Eight Limbs-True Story)

(the image maybe disturbing for some people)

We are in the 21st century India, with all the new thought processes, generation gaps, western fashion, and new relatinship rules India is trying its hands on every development deal possible. But still there are divisions and places where development has its own definitions. We all know about Indian villages and their conditions, no matter how down to earth and hardworking poeple are, there is something that is definitely blocking their growth. Blindfaiths some of the major factors affecting them. Maybe many of you know the story of this girl named Laxmi and maybe some of you do not. 


THE STORY OF LAXMI
 In a remote village in the Bihar region of northeast India, in October 2005, a woman named Poonam Tatma gave birth to an extraordinary child -- a girl with four arms and four legs who was destined to become famous worldwide.

The newborn was the image of a multi-limbed Hindu goddess named Lakshmi, who is worshiped as a deity of wealth and good fortune. And so the child was also named Lakshmi.

"After she was born, for a whole month crowds of people came to see her," Tatma said. "It was said that Lakshmi had been born here."

Poeple started worshipping her as the human incarnation of Goddess Laxmi, gave her money and food so that she could anyhow fullfill their wishes. As her parents didn't believe in doctors for some strange reasons, refused to take help. After much a-do they agreed to consult one for their daughter's condition.

THE MEDICAL SIDE!

When Lakshmi turned age 2, a socialworker sent photos of her to Dr. Sharan Patil, who is a leading orthopedic surgeon at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, India, which specializes in treating skeletal abnormalities in children.


Rajesh Kumar Singh, the village chief, told National Geographic that "A child who looks like this, with four arms and four legs, according to our scriptures, must be the Goddess Lakshmi. It's a wonderful piece of luck to have a child born like this and surviving like this."

The Tatma family earned the equivalent of about 8,000 Rs. a year from farming, and couldn't afford even basic medicines for Lakshmi. They could have profited by charging others to see her, but chose not to. They turned down an offer to sell her to a traveling circus. I personally appreciate what her parents did, because not most of the poor families do that. I have heard people selling their children for not more than just 300 Rs. For those cruelities this was the best example.

Her parents, too, believed she was a goddess. But they also knew she had the needs of a disabled child. Her mother worried about how she would provide care when Lakshmi grew older. "Picking her up, sitting her down, putting her to sleep, these are the problems," Poonam Tatma said. "She tries to crawl with other children but they go ahead of her. She can't keep up. The problem is what will happen when she is older? Right now, she is small, so we can do it. When she is older, who will do it?"


Dr. Patil went on had a visit to this village of Bihar to check up on the little girl but he had to face lots of problems. Laxmi being a popular celebrity there had followers nad woshippers who protested on her getting any sort of treatment. With lots of explanation from her parents and doctors they agreed. That's what I hate about some poeple, if you don't know about something just don't push yourself right in the middle with nothing but argue.  

Doctors took Laxmi and her parents to their Bangalore hospital to find out if the surgery was even possible.

The first X-rays revealed complications. Lakshmi's spine was joined to that of her parasitic twin, and doctors had to determine how to separate the spine without affecting Lakshmi neurologically. They also discovered that Lakshmi had only one functioning kidney. A second functioning kidney was in the parasitic twin.

A LIFE-THREATENING SURGERY

On Nov. 6, 2007, Lakshmi was wheeled away from her parents, and the surgery began. Pediatric surgeons made the first incision, to identify her internal structures -- "which of them belonged to the parasite and which belonged to Lakshmi," Patil said.

Surgeons tied off connecting blood vessels, ensuring that Lakshmi's vital organs weren't damaged. After the parasite's functioning kidney was transplanted to Lakshmi, neurosurgeons began the dangerous separation of Lakshmi's spine where it was connected to the spine of the parasite.

"One [couldn't] make out where the spine of Lakshmi ended and then the other one started," Patil said. "So we erred on the side of safety, and preserved some part of the spine of the parasite."

At midnight, 16 hours into the operation, came the riskiest surgery of all. Doctors were finally ready to remove Lakshmi's conjoined, parasitic twin. "It was a very critical and crucial phase because there were a lot of body fluid shifts, and the moment we tie off the blood vessels, there is a buildup of chemicals in the parasitic twin, which can become dangerous if they travel back into the host tissue. So we had to be pretty quick from that point on. ... Speed was of the essence at that point in time."

Another crucial phase in the reconstructive surgery was to bring the bones of Lakshmi's pelvis together so that they could support her vital organs. Twenty-four hours after the surgery began, Patil finally was able to reassure Lakshmi's parents. "The operation was successful," he told them. "Lakshmi is healthy."


In her room, recovering from the surgery after sleeping soundly, Lakshmi began to open her eyes and move her fingers. For the first time, her parents saw the child who once had been the image of a goddess as an average 2-year-old, with two arms and two legs.

"Lakshmi had one strange look on her face, looking down at her own body," Patil said. "I don't know how to put it but … I almost felt that she was telling me, 'Doc, good job done.'"


LIFE WITH FOUR LIMBS 

When Lakshmi was released from the hospital a month after the surgery, the family took her to the desert state of Rajasthan, far from their village, where she began attending a school for disabled children. During a school break, they returned to their village for a visit. Lakshmi is learning to raise herself upright and balance herself. She has begun to take her first steps.

"Now she can walk on her own," her mother said. "Her cousin comes, and they play the whole day long."
A member of a television crew that traveled to Bihar to videotape Lakshmi's progress in early June said that some of the villagers had grown resentful of the Tatma family, believing the Tatmas had benefited financially from the free medical care.


The family is not wealthy. Lakshmi's father, Shambu, works as a day laborer. When the Tatmas return to Rajasthan so that Lakshmi can continue attending the school for disabled children, he will work for the school. Lakshmi will need additional surgery where her spine was separated from her parasitic twin. She also will need surgery on her feet, which were turned inward because of their positioning above the area where she was joined to the parasite.


A statue of Lakshmi, made by a village craftsman when she still had eight limbs, remains in the village. Some villagers told interviewers they still consider Lakshmi a goddess. Certainly, her parents do.


"I think for every parent the child is a goddess," Patil said.

Asked whether he believed there was a higher power involved in Lakshmi's story, he said, "It is the wishes of many people; it is the prayers of many people; it is the will of the child to live. ... Everything put together, to come together, it has to be some kind of divine intervention."

It is the true story of courage and believe. Fight between the mith and science. It's true that every story teaches us something or the other lesson of life. I've learned one today too.