Baby Born With 12 Fingers & Toes Leaves Doctors Dumbfounded

A  miracle baby, Jacob Duffy, who was born with 12 fingers and 12 toes has left doctors scratching their heads.

According to Mirror UK, before adorable Jacob Duffy entered the world in November last year, there was no indication that anything was wrong with him.

However, shortly after his arrival, mum Rachael Hendry 24, and dad John Duffy, 28, were shocked to discover that he had an extra digit on each of his four limbs.

The seven-month-old tot has an undiagnosed complex syndrome which has left him with a number of defects, including a hole in the heart and eye conditions.

Jacob, from Leeds, West Yorks, also suffers from coloboma, nystagmus and microphthalmia as well as cataracts, leaving him severely sight impaired.

One-in-10,000 condition coloboma causes gaps in the structure of the eye and poorly Jacob suffers from it at every layer in both eyes.

Microphthalmia has left him with one eyeball smaller than the other while he also has nystagmus which causes his eyes to twitch.

Doctors expect the small patent foramen ovale hole in his heart to heal before his first birthday and are reluctant to put him under anaesthetic to operate before then.

As well as his extra fingers, Jacob’s thumbs are triphalangeal which gives them an extra joint.

He also has a dairy milk allergy, a problem with swallowing and he requires a thickened feed.

Rachael said: “We were shocked when he was born and saw his little finger – at first we just thought that he had broken it. My pregnancy was completely normal then we counted the digits and that was the first time we noticed something was wrong. We joked around a bit at first and said that at least he will be good on the piano but obviously we quickly realised that things were a bit more serious. They don’t want to remove his extra digits until he is 12 months old because they don’t want to put him under anaesthetic but one toe is really loose and could affect his walking. I quite like the extra fingers and I don’t really want the surgeons to chop them off but kids are quite cruel and I could hardly send him to school with them…He’s doing really well now and the focus is on how he develops like any other baby. Doctors are keeping a keen eye on him and we’re waiting on test results to see exactly what condition he has. He has so many defects that it can’t just be coincidence.”

Source: Mirror