Separated conjoined twin girl to be discharged Saturday

Dec 14, 2007, 13:07 GMT

Bangalore, Dec 14 (IANS) Lakshmi Tatma, the two-year-old who was successfully separated from her parasitic conjoined twin in a complex surgery last month has fully recovered and will be discharged from the hospital here Saturday.

'Lakshmi is normal. She has responded well to the post-operation treatment and recovered fully. She will be discharged Saturday evening,' Sparsh Hospital chairman and chief orthopaedic surgeon Sharan Patil told IANS Friday.

'Lakshmi made significant progress. Her wounds have healed well. Her plaster cast remains off and custom-made splints have been applied. Her rehabilitation process was satisfactory,' he said.

The hospital has arranged a special function to send-off Lakshmi with her parents - Shambhu and Poonam, who hail from a village (Araria) in north Bihar.

The toddler was successfully operated Nov 6-7 in a marathon surgery lasting 27 hours at the super-specialty hospital in Narayana Health city on the outskirts of India's IT hub by a team of 36 medics led by Patil.

'As you (media) may be aware, the case was complicated and a challenge to the medical fraternity, as Lakshmi was born with eight limbs - two pairs of arms and legs - at either end of the two adjoining torsos but one head.

'It was a rare case of ischiopagus conjoined twin, which occurs one in over 50,000 births, with about 50 percent survival chances,' Patil recalled.

The hospital decided to take up the challenge of separating the twins and saving Lakshmi's life free-of-cost, as her parents belonged to an impoverished family.

The cost of such a surgery, the first of its kind in the sub-continent, is estimated to have been about Rs.2.5 million, including rehabilitation and physiotherapy for over a fortnight.

The term 'ischio' means pelvic bone in Greek and 'pagus' implies fused. Such conjoined twins are among the very rare and complex to separate as they involve many organ systems - liver, intestine, urinary, reproductive, vascular and musculo-skeletal systems.

Though Lakshmi was admitted to the hospital Oct 3, the team of doctors decided to first improve her overall health, as she was malnourished and anaemic.

'We had to first nourish her body and increase haemoglobin to normal level and prepare her for the prolonged surgery, which was a bit risky considering her age and the complications involved,' Patil said.

He hoped Lakshmi would be able to walk and lead a normal life once her limbs stabilised and gained enough strength to stand on her feet.

'It is going to be a long haul. She needs to keep her legs stretched and exercising. As she hasn't walked since she was born, she should be able to do it with some support initially,' Patil added.

According to Sambhu, efforts to get Lakshmi treated in New Delhi early this year did not succeed, as doctors were unwilling to undertake such a risky surgery and the cost involved being prohibitive.

When Patil came know about Lakshmi's plight through social workers, he went to her village to examine the conjoined twin and evaluate the possibility of separating the deformed portion of her body by surgery.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service