Iraqi child with eight limbs gets successfully treated in India

New Delhi: An Iraq baby born with eight limbs, with two of them protruding from his stomach, got a new lease of life after doctors successfully removed the extra arms and legs through surgery.

The seven-month-old boy, Karam, was born with a very rare condition Polymelia, a birth defect in which the affected individual has more than the usual number of limbs.

The team of doctors at Jaypee Hospital in Noida performed the critical surgery in three stages.

"When Karam was brought to the hospital for the first time he was just two weeks old and his condition was very critical.

"After evaluating his condition and considering the risk factors we decided to operate him in multiple stages," Dr Gaurav Rathore, senior consultant in the Orthopaedics and Joint Replacement Department of the hospital said.

In the first stage, Karam's clubfeet was treated and the two limbs which were protruding out of his stomach were removed.

The child then went back to Iraq and his family was in touch with the doctors through phone and email for important instructions.
In the next stage of the surgery, the other two limbs were also removed from his body.

"Like any other normal kid, Karam also has two legs now," Rathore said.

However, as his left leg was not developed completely, doctors performed another surgery during which the muscles of the removed limbs were transplanted to his under developed leg.

Along with this, Karam's crooked back was also treated with pelvic osteotomy surgery.
Besides, he also suffered from corrected transposition of great arteries, a condition in which the heart's formation is completely opposite to the natural biological formation.

"In this condition the patient is always at a risk of a heart failure in future and so a surgery was performed to correct this condition," Dr Rajesh Sharma, Director of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery, said.

Karam, doctors said, is recovering well and the family is flying back to Iraq this Monday.

Dr Abhishek, consultant in the Paediatrics Department said, "When the baby was brought to the hospital, his limbs and the intestines were distorted. The baby had only one kidney. One end of the intestine was connected to the other end through Anastomosis method."

Karam had one testicle on the right side but two testicles on the left side and that too inside the stomach which was also removed, he said.

During the surgery, the heart and intestine problems were also corrected and it took the doctors around six to seven hours in every stage of the operation, he added.