Good News! Villagers Worship Indian Infant as Mother Goddess

[Guest guest]

Almost a year ago, I posted a story about Lakshmi, a baby girl born

with extra limbs (apparently she was the survivor of incompletely

separated twins) and worshiped by local villagers who considered her

to be an avatar of the multi-armed Durga.

 

This morning, some wonderful news for Lakshmi and her family:

 

EXTRA LIMBS GONE, BABY LAKSHMI SAYS HELLO:

2-Year-Old Indian Girl Doing Well After 24-Hour Operation; Docs

Optimistic, More Surgery Needed

 

BANGALORE, India, Nov. 13, 2007 (CBS/AP): Nearly a week after

surgeons removed the extra limbs from an Indian girl born with four

arms and four legs, the bright-eyed 2-year-old made her first public

appearance Tuesday after leaving the hospital's intensive care unit.

 

Swathed in blankets and lying on her father's lap, the girl, named

Lakshmi, appeared before reporters without the extra limbs which had

led some people in her rural village to revere her as an incarnation

of the four-armed goddess she was named after.

 

Looking healthy and alert, Lakshmi had both of her legs in casts

while her arms were free. After sitting for photographs, her parents

quickly ushered her off the stage without speaking to reporters.

 

Lakshmi's doctors were encouraged by her progress and said she was

responding well enough to treatment to leave the hospital's intensive

care unit.

 

Everything seems to be working right -- cardiac, the nervous system,

respiratory system, and her G.I. system, reports Dave Price of CBS'

The Early Show.

 

" She is coping very well and she is stable, " said chief surgeon Dr.

Sharan Patil. " Lakshmi is safe at the moment. "

 

Lakshmi had a 25 percent chance of not even surviving the surgery,

reports Price.

 

Lakshmi was born joined at the pelvis to a " parasitic twin " that

stopped developing in her mother's womb. The surviving fetus absorbed

the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped twin.

 

A team of more than 30 surgeons finished a 24-hour operation last

Wednesday at a hospital in the southern city of Bangalore. They

removed the extra limbs, transplanted a kidney from the twin and

reconstructed Lakshmi's pelvic area.

 

Lakshmi has begun eating solid food again and has been off her

respirator since Friday, Patil said.

 

But despite her swift progress, Patil cautioned that Lakshmi still

had a long way to go toward a full recovery.

 

" We still have things to do, but so far, so good, " he said.

 

Lakshmi will need further treatment and possible surgery for clubbed

feet before she will be able to walk. Her wounds from surgery are

still healing and Patil said they will continue to monitor her

closely.

 

The casts on her legs are intended to keep her inverted feet straight

and the legs together.

 

He did not say when she might be able to return home.

 

Children born with deformities in rural India like the remote village

in the northern state of Bihar where Lakshmi comes from are often

viewed as reincarnated gods.

 

Her father, Shambhu, who only goes by one name, had told reporters

that her family had been worried for her future before the operation

and that he was looking forward to seeing her with " a normal body. "

 

SOURCE: © MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc.

URL (with PHOTOS, VIDEO and STORY LINKS):

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/world/main3493648.shtml?

source=search_story

or

TINY URL: http://tinyurl.com/2tp8z7

 

, " Devi Bhakta "

<devi_bhakta wrote:

>

> [it would be nice if we could set up a small fund to help this

> baby's parents obtain the medical care she needs. Any members know

> how this might be facilitated through local relief agencies, etc? -

> DB]

>

> KOLKATA, India, Nov 14, 2006 (Reuters) - Thousands of people are

> flocking an Indian village to worship a baby girl born with rare

> tumours as they believe she is a reincarnation of Durga, the multi-

> armed Hindu mother goddess, police said on Tuesday.

>

> The tumours on the infant, born in a village in the eastern state

of

> Bihar a few weeks ago, looked like extra limbs, drawing locals from

> around the region with gifts of fruits and flowers, they said.

>

> " People believe the girl is their deliverer, but experts say it is

a

> case of congenital defect, " said Amit Jain, a senior Bihar police

> officer.

>

> Durga is worshipped by millions of Hindus, particularly in eastern

> India, as the preserver of life and destroyer of evil.

>

> The baby, also named Durga, had been wrapped in a cloth and

> surrounded by flowers as a stream of visitors, their hands folded

in

> prayer, come to her home in Diuri village, 110 km (70 miles) south

> of Patna, Bihar's capital.

>

> " We hope they understand that the child needs treatment, " Jain said

> by phone, adding that her parents were labourers who could not

> afford medical treatment.

>

> SOURCE: Reuters Alert

> URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL159248.htm