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Little Girl Born with 8 Limbs Starts School
Lakshmi Tatma is pretty much like any 4-year-old. She’s a little bossy around new friends, likes to pay games with her brother, is a total daddy’s girl and just recently started school. The difference is Lakshmi was born with two torsos and 8 limbs. Oh, and she’s been worshipped as a God since birth.
Lakshmi was born attached to a parasitic twin in a small Indian village. Comparisons to the Lakshmi, the multi-armed Indian Goddess of wealth and fertility, came immediately. Villagers began leaving offerings at the baby’s bed.
Despite the reverence, life itself held very little potential for little Lakshmi. Because her torsos were fused at the hips, she could not even sit up or walk.
Then came the revolutionary operation that separated the girl from her superfluous parts. Now she runs around and enjoys the freedoms and normalcy of any little girl.
‘When I think of the way she was, never in a million years would Lakshmi have been able to go to school or have the life she does today,’ said her mother Poonam, 26.
Such a miracle would not have been possible for Lakshmi’s impoverished parents if not for a wealthy doctor who heard of the child’s plight and stepped in to help.
Though many corrective surgeries lie in her future, Lakshmi enjoys a life an entire world away from what might have been.
Source: The Daily Mail
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7 Comments
[...] Little Girl Born with 8 Limbs Starts School [...]
Best of Strollerderby February 7, 2010 | Famecrawler commented on Feb 07 10 at 11:21 pm[...] Little Girl Born with 8 Limbs Starts School [...]
Drunken Dad Tells Kids to "Bite Faces Off" of Police at McDonald's Playland | Strollerderby commented on Feb 22 10 at 10:07 amMaggie commented on Jan 30 10 at 8:32 amUm … thanks to an operation she can lead a “normal” life … with many corrective surgeries in her future? Is it “normal” for a child (in any culture) to undergo multiple surgeries? Do we assert that children who do are experiencing “normal” lives? Has it improved her life to be able to walk, but no longer to be experienced as a Goddess? Who made these decisions for her — her parents? the foreign doctor? In the US conjoined twins are often separated at the behest of doctors even though the parents might prefer to accept them for who they are and raise them as they exist.
Seems to me this story raises more questions than it answers.
cole commented on Jan 30 10 at 4:19 pmI;m confused, Maggie, are you advocating the child should have been left in her disfigured state? This girl didn’t have a conjoined twin, she had severe deformation that hampered her health and chance to enjoy anything resembling a life.
Math_Maestro commented on Jan 31 10 at 4:48 pmI would suggest & advise “Homebound”, the “Homebound” program is for students, that are dis-abled. This will avoid name-calling, by other students & possibly numerous fights!
jane commented on Feb 21 10 at 2:16 amUm… Maggie, please note that the article does not mention a “twin,” but a “torso” and think for just a minute why that word was used. This was not a case of conjoined twins. What is with all the “holier than thou” judgmental attitude about how other people should live their lives on the internet? If only there were more “walk a mile in their shoes” attitude, the world might be a much more pleasant place. I, for one, celebrate little Lakshmi’s new lease on life. I hope the experiences she will now be able to enjoy will bring her great happiness. Thank goodness for the doctor who so generously offered her the opportunity to grow up like a little girl.
adelaide commented on Jul 09 10 at 8:46 ami was touched by her story and to see she goes to school is Gods grace
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