Surgery to help 4-legged boy stand on two feet

Most parents would want their kids to stand out in a crowd But parents of the infant Raj cherish just one simple dream mdash that their 10monthold bundle of joy will one day blend in with other kids his age and stop being the object of curious stares This Friday a team of surgeons will try and give shape to the Yavatmal couplersquos dream when they perform a difficult surgery to rid the infant of his many extra organs including two extra feet and an extra set of genitals lsquoTworsquo much For the past few days doctors nurses ward boys as well as patients and their kin have been frequenting the paediatric ward at KEM hospital to catch a glimpse of the common object of interest the lsquofourleggedbabyrsquo admitted in the ward But its not just a case of two legs too many The unusual looking child suffers from a rare congenital defect called caudal duplication an anomaly that has led him to have double of each of the organs below his waist both internal and external Worried father Ravindra Janardhan Manohar who works as a labourer in the farms in Yavatmal is finding it difficult to make ends meet in the expensive city of Mumbai Born to 28yearold Ravindra Janardhan Manohar and his wife Vaishali 25 in Yavatmal Raj in his few months has already become the subject of great and disbelief and mythmaking ldquoWhen he was first born everyone came to gawk at him We donrsquot believe in myths and superstitions surrounding such births and doctors at the hospital had explained to us that the extra legs and organs were owing to a medical defect that can be corrected through surgery We took him regularly to the hospital where doctors assured us that he would be operated upon once he grew a bitrdquo said Manohar Ten months after his birth the doctors at the governmentrun rural hospital in Yavatmal referred Rajrsquos case to the civicrun KEM hospital which has a wellequipped paediatric surgery department ldquoFor the past few months doctors from the rural hospital have been intimating us with details of the case through the telemedicine facilityrdquo said a source from the hospital Since his admission Raj has undergone a battery of tests and investigations in the runup to this major surgery On Friday Raj will be operated upon by a team of the best paediatric surgeons KEM has to offer The hospitalrsquos dean Dr Sanjay Oak who is also head of the paediatric surgery department will be leading the team of surgeons and anaesthesiologists Dr Oak said ldquoWe are going to operate on him this Friday only after which we can discuss the caserdquo Less is more While surgeons are in a huddle working out their strategies for a surgery that is sure to put all their skills to the test Rajrsquos parents are hoping that the surgery will divest the child of the organs and allow him to blend in with other tots his age ldquoHe has a pretty face and his abnormal looks are very disturbing for us We always wanted a child but we want him to be like other children We want him to be able to play and walk like other childrenrdquo said Vaishali Future tense Ravindra who works as a labourer in the farms is finding it difficult to make ends meet in the expensive city of Mumbai ldquoThe hospital hasnrsquot told us about the expenses involved yet but we are worried After the surgery he will require a lot of care and we need money to support his medical treatment and his education in futurerdquo appealed Ravindra The cost of such operations ranges between Rs 155 lakh in private hospitals Did you know Experts suggest that in order to rule out any such anomaly pregnant women should undergo prenatal testing on a regular basis during gestation u00a0 Expert speak Dr Nitin Dhende Head of the paediatric surgery department at JJ hospital ldquoThese are sporadic cases and till date there has been no research on the genes responsible for such congenital defects About six years ago we had operated on a female child who had two vaginas and four legs In such cases all the organs are one and then reconstruction has to be done which is a complicated surgery in itselfrdquo Speaking of the complications that could arise if the condition was left without rectification Dr Dhende said ldquoThis swelling can go to the spinal cord and lead to complications The child whom we had operated upon is now growing normally though she still has difficulty defecating owing to the organsrdquou00a0 Dr Santosh Karmarkaru00a0 Senior paediatric surgeon at Lilavati hospital ldquoIn such cases abnormalities are not just limited to the physical duplication of visible organs The child also has duplication of internal organs including the urethra and intestine which lead to internal complications We had operated on a case of parasitic twinning in which the lower half of a baby was sticking out from the chest of another baby But this is a case of caudal duplication with hindgut duplication which is very rare as both the genitals and the legs are doubled The operations can be scheduled depending on the anatomy A series of operations can be performed or the defects can be corrected stepwise Usually if planned well these cases can be correctedrdquo 8limbed Lakshmi Lakshmi Tatma from Jodhpur born with 8 limbs and an extra torso fused at the hips was two years old when doctors performed a 27 hour operation on her to separate her from her parasitic twin The operation was a success and she now leads a normal lifeu00a0