Baby born with THREE arms has successful operation to remove the extra limb

A baby boy born with three arms due to a rare condition which affects one in a million infants has had a successful operation to remove the extra limb.

The baby was born with his right arm in the normal place, but two arms on his left side. He was brought to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in Gujarat, India, in December, where doctors carried out a procedure to remove the extra limb when he was just over two weeks old.

The boy, who is originally from Bhavnagar, also in Gujarat, suffers from a rare condition called Polymelia, which causes a person to be born with extra limbs, often arms or legs.

The rare disorder occurs in the womb when the cells form abnormally during embryonic development.

The embryo begins to develop as conjoined twins. But one twin stops growing, leaving the remaining developments – often limbs – of the undeveloped twin attached to the body of the live baby.

There are very few known cases of Polymelia around the world.

A CT scan at the hospital revealed the boy was also born with a club foot, was missing a kidney and one of his testicles was inside his stomach.

The boy, who was born to diamond worker Ramesh Makwana and his wife, was originally taken to Bhavnagar Civil Hospital.

Baffled doctors referred the case to specialists at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, nearly 200km away.

In Ahmedabad, Dr Rakesh Joshi, head of paediatric surgery at the hospital performed a procedure to remove the extra limb on Wednesday, December 17.

Before carrying out the procedure, Dr Joshi told the Ahmedabad Mirror: ‘We realised that apart from the extra arm on the left side and baby had a right club foot and a missing kidney.”

He said they would also straighten the club foot by putting it in plaster.

He added that a lack of a kidney will not hamper the child’s health or his ability to lead a normal life.

The baby boy’s father told the newspaper: ‘We have a daughter. We were hoping for a baby boy to complete our family and were happy when our son was born. But when we came to know about his condition, we were worried – all we wanted was a healthy baby. However the doctors have assured us our son will be alright.’

The boy will now have to undergo physiotherapy for his functional left hand and his club foot.

In 2012 MailOnline reported on a newborn girl from Pakistan who was born with a third arm due to Polymelia.

The extra arm was joined to her back near her spinal cord.

At just four years old the baby girl, who was from the Dera Ghazi Khan District in the Punjab province of Pakistan, underwent an operation to remove the extra arm.

She is among a handful of patients worldwide who suffer from Polymelia.

In the same year, a three-year-old boy from Peru underwent an operation remove the body of a ‘parasitic twin growing inside of his stomach.’

The most well known case of the condition was Lakshmi Tatma, from India, who was born with eight limbs. A parasitic twin who had stopped developing and died in the womb was attached to her body. Doctors removed the extra limbs in 2007.

Source: dailymail