Surgery for girl with eight limbs is going smoothly doctors say

Lakshmi Tatma, 2, sits in the lap of her mother, Poonam, a day before the marathon surgery.


BANGALORE, India -- Partway through a mammoth 40-hour operation on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, surgeons in India said the procedure is going according to plan, with no problems encountered.



"The surgery is going on very well so far," head surgeon Dr. Sharan Patil told . The surgery to separate Lakshmi Tatma from her "parasitic twin" continues, he said, with a team of some 30 surgeons.

"We've managed to remove the parasitic twin out of Lakshmi's body and started reconstructing her pelvic bone. We have managed to get the pelvic bone together."

The little girl, he said, has "responded very well. ... Everything is going according to plan."

The task began early Tuesday in the southern Indian city of Bangalore and is expected to go on through the night, with surgeons working eight-hour shifts.

The conjoined twin stopped developing in the mother's womb, and has a torso and limbs, but no head. It was joined to Lakshmi at the pelvis.

When Lakshmi was born into a poor, rural Indian family, villagers in the remote settlement of Rampur Kodar Katti in the northern state of Bihar believed she was sacred. As news of her birth spread, locals waited in line for a blessing from the baby.

Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam Tatma, named the girl after the Hindu goddess of wealth who has four arms. However, they were forced to keep her in hiding after they were approached by men offering money in exchange for putting their daughter in a circus.

The couple, who earn just $1 a day as casual laborers, wanted her to have the operation but were unable to pay for the rare procedure, which has never before been performed in India.

After Patil visited the girl in her village from Narayana Health City hospital in Bangalore, the hospital's foundation agreed to fund the $200,000 operation.

The operation is being conducted by specialists in pediatrics, neurosurgery, orthopedics and plastic surgery. Without it, doctors say, Lakshmi would be unlikely to survive beyond early adolescence.

Planning for the surgery took a month, Patil said, and Lakshmi spent that month in the hospital.

Her parents are being given regular updates but are not allowed to see their daughter during the operation.

"We are quite optimistic," Patil told . "We do expect that she should be able to walk normally and lead a normal life."

Texan sets record with 87 snakes in tub

This photo shows Jackie Bibby in a see-through bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes, in Dublin, Texas, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007. Bibby spent about 45 minutes in the tub shattering his own record by 12 snakes.



Another day, another bizarre world record for Jackie Bibby, the "Texas Snake Man." Bibby spent about 45 minutes in a see-through bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes Monday, fully clothed, shattering his own record by 12 snakes just in time for Guinness World Records Day, which is Thursday. A Guinness official certified the record.

The snakes crawled under his arms, between his legs and anywhere else they could slither, Bibby said. None bit him.

"They can go wherever they want as long as they don't start biting," Bibby said. "The key to not biting is for me to stay still. Rapid movement scares a rattlesnake. If you move real slow and gentle, that doesn't seem to bother them."

Bibby sat in the dry tub with a pillow behind him, wearing regular clothing. The snakes were not defanged and still contained their venom, he said.

The clear bathtub was specially made several years ago for Bibby by the Guinness folks for a televised segment. He has used it for subsequent attempts at the record for sitting in a tub with snakes.

"I have set several world records in that bathtub," Bibby said.

The record was Bibby's latest grab at glory. Last year he set a Guinness-certified record by holding 10 rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth at once. He said he hopes to break that record Tuesday by squeezing in an 11th.

The Texas Snake Man also claims to hold non-sanctioned records for climbing into a sleeping bag head first with 20 rattlesnakes and going in feet first with 112.

Dublin is about 120 miles southwest of Dallas.