Doctors in India operating Tuesday on a two-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs say the surgery is progressing well.

Lakshmi sits in her mother Poonam's lap as she poses at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, India, on Monday. Doctors began operating on the two-year-old year girl Tuesday.
(Associated Press)

Surgeons are in the early stages of an extensive operation to remove the extra limbs, organs and other body parts of the child's so-called "parasitic twin."

The girl is basically attached to a twin who stopped developing in their mother's womb.

As the surviving fetus, the girl — identified only as Lakshmi — absorbed the legs, arms and organs such as kidneys of the undeveloped fetus.

"It's a big team effort of a lot of skilled surgeons who will be putting their heart and soul into solving the problem," said Dr. Sharan Patil, the lead surgeon in the operation. "It's going to take many, many hours on a continuous basis to operate on the baby. So, these issues definitely make it complex."

The complications for Lakshmi's surgery are myriad: The two spines are merged, she has four kidneys, entangled nerves, two stomach cavities and two chest cavities. She cannot stand up or walk.

Lakshmi is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, and some in her village in the northern state of Bihar revere her.

"Everybody considers her a goddess at our village," said her father, Shambhu, who goes by one name. "All this expenditure has happened to make her normal. So far, everything is fine."

Others sought to make money from Lakshmi. Her parents kept her in hiding after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, they said.

'A very cute girl'

Patil put the risk of losing Lakshmi between 20 and 25 per cent.

Doctors at Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, where Lakshmi is undergoing surgery, said she is popular among the medical staff and other patients.

"She's a very cute girl," Dr. Patil Mamatha said. "She's very playful and gets along well with others."

The hospital's foundation is paying for the operation because the girl's family could not afford the medical bills, Mamatha said.
 
A team of 30 doctors was participating in the surgery.