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Indian op girl discharged

15/12/2007

A two-year-old girl who endured an operation to remove four of her eight limbs last month has been discharged from hospital.

Lakshmi Tatma smiled at reporters from the arms of her father as she left the hospital in Bangalore over five weeks after the operation in early November.

She had been born with four legs, four arms and extra organs from what was effectively her headless, undeveloped twin sister and was unable to walk.

The complicated operation was performed for free after her father, a labourer from Bihar state, brought her to the city's hospital.

Further "corrective" surgery will be required to amend her club feet but doctors said they were confident she would eventually learn to walk and lead a normal life as an adult, extending her life expectancy dramatically.

Had Lakshmi not had the operation she would probably not have survived beyond adolescence.

Sharan Patil, who led the operation, said she was "normal, eating well and in good spirits".

"She has responded well to the post-operation treatment," he added.

Members of her home village consider her to be like Lakshmi, the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, and, according to the Reuters news agency, plan to build a temple to celebrate the operation's successful completion.