Doctors to operate on baby with conjoined twin protruding from buttocks

[emad]

Doctors are to attempt to remove a conjoined parasitic twin from a nine-month old baby.
22 Jan 2009

Faith Mwampe has the feet of an unformed twin protruding from her buttocks, meaning she may never be able to walk unless it is removed.

The Zambian baby, who was born in April last year, is set to undergo the five-hour operation at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka next Thursday.

Her mother Mercy Lenganji, 18, faces an anxious wait as ten specialist doctors, led by Prof Lupando Munkonge, will try to remove the feet.

The baby has already spent the past 26 days undergoing tests ahead of the risky operation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4314592/Doctors-to-operate-on-baby-with-conjoined-twin-protruding-from-buttocks.html

[Midlodemocrat]

1. What a darling little face. Best wishes to her.

[kestrel91316]

2. I can't hardly look at this stuff anymore since I saw a video clip of

the twin girl(s) in MN that have two heads and one body.

[jwirr]

3. Wonder what the cause of this was? I was reading National Geographic

- an article that showed a baby born without eyes due to the chemical pollution from the worlds garbage being dumped in Africa.

[Indenturedebtor]

5. Conjoined twins among all different sorts of animals have been around a long time

I'm no reproductive biologist but as I understand it - sometimes eggs don't divide properly. In my humble opinion this likely has nothing to do with pollution.

[TZ]

8. thats exactly what it is

This process when it happens completely gives us identical twins. For some reason in these cases the complete separation of the dividing egg is stopped. And yeah, its not really due to influences from outside the womb.

[poverlay]

4. What a pain in the ass for that poor kid. I hope everything comes out ok in the end...n/t

[trotsky]

6. Sorry, I'm a bad person.

Because I really laughed at that. :)

[poverlay]

7. Don't feel bad. I felt like shit typing it, but I knew my fellow DUers would understand. If it

would spare that baby a moment of anguish I'd happily cut off my own feet and attach them to my ass.

I expect he'll have a wonderful life and very little explaining to do to his future girlfriend...

[trotsky]

9. And we are afforded the ability to make a little light of the situation...

because we now have the technology and science to make this kind of surgery 99.99% uneventful. It's almost like joking about getting a wart or birthmark removed. This child will grow up and live a completely normal life instead of being consigned to the circus in their freak show or worse, shunned or even killed by fearful, ignorant individuals.

[poverlay]

10. Yes, and I am very thankful for it... n/t