8-Limbed Goddess Child Becoming Normal

Tweet

Every semester I assign current event articles for my students to turn in. Every once in a while they turn in something unique like this story. A child was born with 8 limbs in India. Since it was a remote farming area, the locals thought she was the incarnation of the Goddess Lakshmi. Who is the goddess of wealth and the embodiment of beauty. A doctor heard of the child and wanted to help her become normal. He said he would pay all of the child's expenses if her family would bring her to the Sparsh hospital. The child had a parasitic twin. A twin that didn't develop in the womb. So Lakshimi had a set of limbs and her twin had a set of limbs and that is why she had 8 limbs. Her parents had a hard time deciding on whether or not to give Lakshimi the operation. She could die in the procedure and if the child became normal they would lose their little Goddess. In the end the parents decided to go through with it and the operation which took 30 surgeons 27 hours was successful. Lakshimi is now on her way to becoming a normal child. Here is the link to the story if you want to read it. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/06/19/eight.limbed.girl/