Chapter 9 :Severely Impaired Newborns and Infanticide

Severe Abnormalities

BABY BORN WITH HEART OUTSIDE BODY

AOL  (Nov. 27, 2008) - A baby girl in India is fighting for her life after she was born with her heart and part of her liver growing outside her body, Reuters reports.

Surgeons at the north Bengal medical college, located near Siliguri, India, are working to move the newborn's organs into their proper place.

Doctors in India are fighting to save the life of a baby girl who was born with her heart and part of her liver growing outside of her body. Here, the newborn, whose name was not released, is shown at a hospital near Siliguri, India, on Wednesday, four days after her birth

"This is a very rare case," said child specialist Miridula Chatterjee of the Bengal medical college. "We are not sure if we can perform surgery to put her heart and liver back, but we'll try our best."

A nation away, a four-year-old Chinese boy born with a protruding heart underwent surgery this week to place his heart inside his body, according to Sky News.

The boy's parents didn't seek medical help earlier because they couldn't afford it. They tried to protect their child's heart by dressing him in extra clothes to pad the area and preventing him from playing with other children to avoid injury, the news service said.

His condition, in which the heart is covered only by the skin, is called Pentalogy of Cantrell. It occurs in about five in one million live births.

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BLEEDING 

AOL  (Nov. 27, 2008) -Schools have banned her, and some in her village say she's cursed. Twinkle Dwivedi, a 13-year-old girl from India, bleeds from her skin on a daily basis without being cut or scratched, the Telegraph reported Oct. 2. An Indian medical team diagnosed her with having an incurable clotting disorder. 

MERMAID SYNDROME

AOL  (Nov. 27, 2008) -Milagros Cerron is a rare "mermaid syndrome" survivor. She was born with her legs fused together from her thighs to her ankles. Doctors successfully separated her legs in June 2005. Milagros turned four in April. 

CONGENITAL INSENSITIVITY TO PAIN

AOL  (Nov. 27, 2008) -Ashlyn Blocker is among a small number of people in the world diagnosed with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA), a rare and untreatable genetic disorder that makes her unable to feel pain. The disease also makes her unable to feel extreme temperatures, whether hot or cold. Here, Ashlyn watches her classmates dance in music class in October 2004. 

EIGHT LIMBS

AOL  (Nov. 27, 2008) -Indian 2-year-old Lakshmi, named for a four-armed Hindu goddess, was born with eight limbs. The skeletal abnormalities were the result of fusing with a parasitic twin while in the womb. In November 2007, Lakshmi underwent a 24-hour surgery to remove her extra limbs. She now walks and plays like a normal toddler but requires ongoing corrective surgery, according to the Times Online.  (Sources: AP, The Sun, CNN)

© Copyright Philip A. Pecorino 2002. All Rights reserved.

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