Poverty-Stricken Parents Of Bihar Girl Born With Eight Limbs And Two Torsos Unable To Fund Her Surgery

A lack of funds is preventing a crucial operation for a Bihar girl born with eight limbs and two torsos.

Eleven-year-old Lakshmi Tatma, who was born with a parasitic twin before it was surgically removed in a world-famous procedure in Bangalore 2008, is facing a health scare which has left her parents worried.

The girl, who lives in Rampur Kodarkatti village of Araria district in Bihar, has been experiencing acute pain and is unable to sit for long.

Her parents, Shambhu and Poonam, explained that their daughter was supposed to undergo a follow-up operation after her 27-hour-long surgery at a Bengaluru hospital in February 2008, but that they are unable to scrape together the funds.

“My daughter is not well and she needs immediate medical attention,” said Shambhu, a daily wager.

Village headman of Rampur Kodarkatti, Rajesh Kumar Singh, said that Lakshmi’s poor parents are unable to take her to Karnataka’s capital city for treatment. 

"After her first surgery, doctors had even advised them to take the girl to England for further operation, but they did not.” 

The village headman, who played a key role in facilitating the child's earlier operation, said: “She is unable to sit when attending classes at her government-run village school and has developed sores around the tail bone.”

He said that a noted surgeon from Katihar district had volunteered to cure Lakshmi. However, her parents want to take her to the Bengaluru hospital where the first surgery was performed. 

When Lakshmi was born, the villagers initially took the girl to be a reincarnation of Goddess Lakshmi and began to worship her. They even constructed a temple and consecrated her idol.

After the 2008 operation, the girl went to a charitable institution run by an NGO in Jodhpur where she studied and her parents worked and earned a living. However, the family soon returned to the village. 

The village headman said that the villagers "are very fond of the girl and want her to recover soon". 

Rajesh, however, said that the Bihar government had done nothing to help the girl or her family. He said: “When Lakshmi was garnering worldwide attention, then Araria district magistrate Upendra Sinha had promised the girl a house under the Indira Awas Yojana but that never materialised. She is getting only an allowance of Rs 400 under a government scheme for physically challenged people.” 

He added: “I am trying to get a house allotted to her after obtaining permission from the district administration.”