By IANS
Bangalore : Lakshmi Tatma, the two-year-old who was successfully separated from her parasitic conjoined twin in a complex surgery here last month, was Saturday discharged as she has fully recovered.
Though functionally she is alright, “physically, her feet are still turned in. They require a lot of stretching and Lakshmi’s parents have been trained how to go about it,” Sparsh Hospital chairman and chief orthopaedic surgeon Sharan Patil who led the doctors team that operated on her told reporters.
“Lakshmi had never turned over earlier. Now she is able to stand for 10 minutes on the bed holding the window grill, Patil said.
Lakshmi’s parents Shambhu and Poonam, who hail from Araria village in north Bihar, thanked Patil and his team for giving their child a new life.
They left for Jodhpur where they plan to settle down and will return to Bangalore after the Holi festival in March for another surgery on the child.
“Further reconstructive surgery is not needed now. We plan to carry this out after Holi,” Patil said.
“Lakshmi is normal. She has responded well to the post-operation treatment and recovered fully. She made significant progress. Her wounds have healed well. Her plaster cast remains off and custom-made splints have been applied. Her rehabilitation process was satisfactory,” Patil had told IANS Friday.
The child was successfully operated Nov 6-7 in a marathon 27-hour surgery at the super-specialty Sparsh hospital in Narayana Health city on the outskirts of India’s IT hub by a team of 36 medics led by Patil.
Lakshmi was born with eight limbs – two pairs of arms and legs – at either end of the two adjoining torsos but one head.
“It was a rare case of ischiopagus conjoined twin, which occurs one in over 50,000 births, with about 50 percent survival chances,” Patil recalled.
Expressing happiness at Lakshmi’s progress, he said, “all her organ functions assessed on the clinical, haematological and biochemical parameters are within normal limits. Her wounds have healed completely and she has undergone physiotherapy to strengthen her legs.”
He said he was hopeful that after a few weeks of physiotherapy, Lakshmi will be able to walk, first with help and later on her own.