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A photo of the child who had six legs after his successful operation in Jinnah Hospital. – Online Photo

KARACHI: A team of surgeons at the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) on Thursday successfully operated on an eight-day-old baby boy to remove the additional lower limbs acquired from his parasitic twin.

The boy was born with four extra limbs on his lower abdomen at a government hospital in Sukkur and was brought to the NICH on April 16.

Doctors started investigations for medical and surgical interventions the same day, describing him as a rare and complicated case.

Speaking at a press briefing, the director of the NICH, Prof Jamal Raza, with a couple of surgeons, said that after a theatre procedure of about four hours which started at around 9am on Thursday, the team, including an anaesthetist, successfully separated the extra limbs from the boy.

The infant was taken back to the intensive care unit of the NICH so that he could recover and stabilise, he said and added that further investigations would be held after a few weeks.

“He is now as normal as other newborn children are and is living without any intensive care support,” Prof Jamal said.

The leader of the surgery team, Dr Jamshed Akhtar, said that the purpose of the surgery was to dissociate the extra four limbs from the lower abdomen in one go, and that further correction of the internal organs and pelvis of the child could be undertaken later without jeopardising the overall body functions of the child.

The father of the infant, Mr Sheikh, 31, who is an X-ray technician with a private diagnostic practice in Sukkur, was overjoyed while he talked to the media. “I thank Almighty Allah and the doctors and the management of the NICH for saving my child’s life.”

He added that at present they were considering a name for the child.

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