Indian Boy Born With Eight Limbs

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - In the second such case in the last five years a child in Bihar, India has a parasitic twin attached to the hip and has caused the boy to live with extra arms and legs.

The Daily Telegraph reports that while the parents are wishing for a doctor, others are praying to what they believe is a god of wealth.

Deepak Paswaan was born with the arms, legs and buttocks of a twin protruding from his chest. According to the Telegraph, the legs are growing at the same rate as the boy, adding to the weight he must carry. Further up his torso are the withered arms.

The internal effects are not known because no X-rays or scans have been taken.

Fox News reported that another child, Lakshmi Tatma, was born with a parasitic twin attached to her hip that left her with eight limbs. Her twin was removed in 2007 and, while she will need more surgeries as she grows, she is doing well and playing sports in school.

According to the Telegraph , parasitic twins occur when the twin embryo does not fully separate in the womb. One twin becomes dominant and the undeveloped twin becomes dependent on the body functions of the living twin.

The parents of Paswaan cannot afford the medical care necessary to remove the extra limbs.

The Telegraph reports that worshippers are bringing offerings of money and flower garlands and consider him the reincarnation of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity. Such was the case with Lakshmi Tatma, who shares the name of the goddess.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing editor of health at FoxNews.com , said that these cases are similar to how conjoined twins are formed.

"With conjoined twins, you have two living fetuses that are attached either by the head, abdomen or legs," said Dr. Alvarez, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. "In this particular case, it's the same principle, except there is a malformation of one of those twins. As a result, the twin never fully develops and is then partially encased in the living fetus."

Dr. Alvarez said the surgery could be challenging because the body is feeding blood into the extra partial limbs. He said a series of X-rays and CT scans would have to be done to see what vascular connections there are to the tissue of the twin and what organs the boy shares with it.