Boy with eight limbs has successful surgery

BIHAR: An Indian boy with eight limbs whose veneration as a god propelled him in to the public spotlight has been operated on to give him the chance of a normal life, his father said on Wednesday.

Deepak Paswan, 7, was born in one of the least developed parts of India with a parasitic twin conjoined to his abdomen, which meant he had four legs and four arms but one head.

Hindu pilgrims from the area near his village in the northern state of Bihar used to visit the household to worship him as an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who is often depicted with more than four limbs.

His family, uncomfortable with the attention, appealed publicly in March for help to secure an operation to have the unwanted limbs removed.

Their wish was granted on May 30 in a hospital in the southern city of Bangalore which bore the cost of the complicated and dangerous procedure. “We always wanted surgery to remove the parasitic twin to get rid of him being treated as a religious object by people,” his father, Viresh Paswan, told a news agency.

The father, a low-caste construction worker, called the four-hour operation a “miracle” and said his son would now be able to go to school “like any boy his age”. The Fortis Hospital in Bangalore said a team of 15 doctors worked on Deepak’s case and after months of consultations went ahead with the complicated surgery.

“He is 100 per cent fit,” said chief surgeon Ramcharan Thiagrajan, adding that doctors faced a challenge to ensure his intestines functioned correctly in the long run.

“Due to all the mockery and stigma he has faced he is very restless and nervous. But now after this successful operation and counseling he will lead a normal life.”

Published in the Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2010.