Baby saved from 'parasitic' leg

[SunWuKong]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3188687.stm





Baby saved from 'parasitic' leg


Chinese surgeons have saved a baby girl born with the leg of an undeveloped twin joined to her back.

Conjoined twins are extremely rare, but occasionally, one of the twins fails to develop properly, lacks vital organs, and is dependent on the other to live.

In this case, the twin took the form of a tail-like leg protruding upwards from the hip - and its demands for nutrients were slowly killing its sister.

Doctors in Beijing successfully separated them in a six-hour operation.

The 14-month-old girl, called Qing Qing, had been abandoned on the streets of Beijing in March and adopted by a woman farmer.

A team of four surgeons, plus anaesthetists and specialist nurses oversaw the operation.

Surgeon Yu Xing told Reuters: "The operation was smooth and satisfactory.

"She was in a dangerous condition, and even faced death, had we not operated in time.

"After the operation, she can lie down - we hope she can sit in the near future.

"If her nervous system recovers well, and some other small operations succeed, she can even walk some day."

Failed split

Identical twins are formed when a single embryo splits shortly after conception.

However, conjoined twins - sometimes referred to as Siamese twins - are formed when something goes wrong during the splitting process.

This can result in two fully-functional babies joined at some point - if the twins are joined at the abdomen, they may share certain organs such as the liver or sections of the bowel.

However, occasionally, one of the twins will fail to develop properly, and play a parasitic role, only surviving because of the efforts of the organs in the other.

The strain of supporting more than one body can be very dangerous for the complete twin.

The Attard twins from Malta, separated in a marathon operation at St Mary's Hospital in Manchester, were in this situation - only one of them could possibly survive a separation.

In rarer cases yet, such as the Chinese one, the second "twin" has hardly developed at all, lacking all major organs including a brain.

[applehead]

umm..
glad she's alive.

[amietron]

3-legged chinese monster? :X

that was mean. i'm sorry.

[applehead]

i can't stop staring at the x-ray.

[Deadpool]

Originally Posted by amietron

3-legged chinese monster? :X

that was mean. i'm sorry.

I too have a 3rd leg.

[Emperor_Mike]

It's good to hear that the child will survive. The bit about a parasitic leg was rather disconcerting.

[ChinaLama]

poor third leg. :(

[hooligan]

Originally Posted by Deadpool

I too have a 3rd leg.

haha, me too, let's be friends

[ChinaLama]

Originally Posted by hooligan

haha, me too, let's be friends

you mean you want your third legs to be friends?

[Emperor_Mike]

Originally Posted by ChinaLama

you mean you want your third legs to be friends?

No, I think Hooligan's hitting on Deadpool. Wubby, wubby *smooch* *smooch*

[hooligan]

Originally Posted by Emperor_Mike

No, I think Hooligan's hitting on Deadpool. Wubby, wubby *smooch* *smooch*

::smooch:: ::smooch::

[hooligan]

Originally Posted by ChinaLama

you mean you want your third legs to be friends?

our third legs are going to 'sword fight'

[ChinaLama]

your third legs should be friends to each others' second mouths.

[Emperor_Mike]

Originally Posted by ChinaLama

your third legs should be friends to each others' second mouths.

Or first mouths come to think of it. Ewwww...

[mr. x]

my older cousin (female) was born with 6 fingers on one hand, my mom said the finger was boneless so they just removed it. man thats gross, otherwise she's normal (we are taiwanese).

one of my high school friends was a mainlander (tall guy, probly not yao ming tall but tall) and he had a webbed hand like between the index and the thumb, he got surgery and now you can see like a scarred area there (and the thumb is not quite "straight" but it works tho)