Lakshmi Tatma was born in the Bihar region of India on a holiday devoted to the four-armed Hindu deity Vishnu. She is connected to a headless parasitic twin, and has eight limbs.
A team of 30 surgeons is preparing to remove the headless twin. Without the operation, she isn’t expected to survive to adulthood.
Lakshmi is a beautiful little girl, but the pictures in this article may be disturbing to the very sensitive. Link -via Unique Daily
Her mother Poonam Tatma said she believed her daughter was "a miracle, a reincarnation" of Vishnu.
A team of 30 surgeons is preparing to remove the headless twin. Without the operation, she isn’t expected to survive to adulthood.
Dr Sharan Patil, who will be leading the surgery at the country's Narayana Health City, in Bangalore, said: "Fortunately, Lakshmi has one complete body with a near perfect set of organs.
"Her skeletal system involves two bodies which are fused together at the level of the pelvis.
"The operation itself, although presents several challenges, is not the most complex in the world. What is highly unusual in Lakshmi's case is precisely how her bodies are fused, almost mirroring each other."
Lakshmi is a beautiful little girl, but the pictures in this article may be disturbing to the very sensitive. Link -via Unique Daily
Rarely, in cases of parasitic twins, does the subject have control over the vestigial limbs of their sibling. There have been rare cases of control, but when only an extra limb or two are present. Francesco Lentini, for example, exhibited some control over a third leg.
http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/2006/08/francesco-lentini-three-legged-man.html
In this case, however, control is highly unlikely as the twin is nearly complete. A head or brain likely exists somewhere in the torso, thus the limbs are not hardwired to the central nervous system of the subject.
This newest extreme case of parasitic twins, while unusual, is not unheard of. In the 90’s as a man by the name of Rudy Santos was exhibited as ‘Octoman’ in the Philippines.