Spinal cord separated from lakshmi, surgery progressing smoothly

Bangalore, Nov 6 (UNI) Surgeons today successfully separated the spines of two-year-old Lakshmi, the conjoined twin from Bihar, undergoing the complicated operation of separating herself from her paralytic twin.

Doctors at a Superspeciality Sparsh Hospital here, who began the 40-hour surgery this morning were successful in separating the extended spinal cord that extended into Lalskhi's headless twin, down the pelvic bone, tonight.

The condition of the baby was stable and there had been no complications so far, Dr Sharan Patil, the orthopaedic surgeon and Director of the Hospital said.

The 36-member strong team including noted surgeons completed the "most critical" of the operation and were now set to separate the parasitic lower part of Lakshmi's body later tonight.

"Paediatric surgeons are now on their job to separate the organs and then orthopaedic surgeons will try to reconstruct the pelvic ring that will complete the first stage," he added.

Lakshmi, an ischiopagus twin, had two bodies joined at her pelvis. Only one of the twins had a head, while the other was a parasite. Two pairs of legs and arms were formed at either end of the two adjoining torsos, thus appearing as a child with eight limbs.

(Ed: Pick up suitably from BG 7) UNI