Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi have achieved a medical feat by carrying out a successful surgery on a 17-year-old boy who was born with four legs. In addition to his normal lower limbs, the teenager had two feet attached to his stomach.
Such a surgery, doctors said, was carried out at the premier hospital for the first time.
Dr Asuri Krishna, additional professor at the surgery department of AIIMS said such cases – medically known as “incomplete parasitic twins” – happen only once in one crore people. The phenomenon is seen when twins are conceived but the body of one of them is not able to develop and its organs get attached to the frame of the other child.
Sources said only 42 cases of people with four legs have been reported across the world.
Dr Krishna said the 17-year-old boy, from Balia in Uttar Pradesh, was brought to the outpatient department of AIIMS on January 28. He said the teenager’s stomach was covered with a cloth and doctors could see two legs dangling under it.
According to the team of doctors who performed the surgery, the teenager’s body was not able to grow properly because of the two extra legs, which could have also caused damage to his other organs. When the boy was promoted to Class 8, he was forced to leave his studies because, apart from the physical problems, people used to make fun of him, which also took a mental toll.
