Little girl born with THREE legs can finally walk after eight-hour op to remove her parasitic TWIN
Choity Khatum, three, travelled from Bangladesh to Australia for the surgery
A TODDLER born with three legs after her parasitic twin grew “inside” her can finally walk and run after life-changing surgery.
Choity Khatun was given only a slim chance of surviving before travelling to Australia for the op.
A team of surgeons at Monash Children’s Hospital spent several months mapping out a procedure to reconstruct their three-year-old patient’s anatomy.
Chris Kimber, head of paediatric surgery at the hospital, said: “A twin had grown out of her pelvis but only part of a twin.
“The problem is there’s no rule book for this because she’s a very unique individual so you have to try and work out what was where.
“When Choity arrived in Australia, she was very malnourished, she couldn’t work properly at all.”
Working with experts from Europe and the US, the surgeons planned a procedure that involved removing the remains of Choity’s extra limb.
Part of that leg had already been removed in an earlier operation in Bangladesh.
But, the op was complicated by the fact the surgeons had to take out, disconnect and reconnect other organs to achieve their aim of leaving her with just two legs.
Choity’s condition meant body parts from a twin developed in her perineum – the area between the anus and vulva.
Surgeons spent hours examining her and discovered she had two rectums, anuses, vaginas and wombs.
She was also incontinent.
Dr Kimber said the operation was “extremely rare”.
It was finally carried out in November taking eight hours and involving eight doctors who specialise in genital and pelvic reconstructions.
He added: “We spent three or four months thinking about it, presenting it to other doctors, getting ideas from around the world and then based on lots of world opinion we were able to come up with something that clearly works.”
WHAT IS A PARASITIC TWIN?
Similar to a conjoined twin, in the case of a parasitic twin, one of the babies is not fully formed, and was never a viable foetus.
Parasitic twins happen when a twin embryo begins to develop in the womb.
The pair fail to fully separate and one embryo remains dominant, at the expense of its twin.
The underdeveloped twin is defined as being parasitic, rather than conjoined, because it is incompletely formed and wholly dependent on the body of its twin.
A triumph for Dr Kimber and the team, was that they were able to help Choity become continent, an “extraordinary” achievement, according to Dr Kimber.
He added: “She’s pretty good.”
The three-year-old is also partially blind, but an opthalmologist’s examination at the hospital found her sight could not be improved.
Now though, she has enough sight to walk and run like other kids her age, much to the delight of her 22-year-old mum.
Shima Khatun, said: “Everything is good now, she can play like every baby.”
She added she was looking forward to taking her daughter home to their village outside Dhaka, and being reunited with her husband, Choity’s dad.
Choity’s operation was made possible by the Australian charity, Children First Foundation, who brought her over to Melbourne.
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