Baby born with six legs

[jimmy olsen]

Poor kid

Freaky pics at the daily mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2130729/Six-legged-baby-born-Pakistan-Doctors-battle-save-million-baby-boy.html#ixzz1sOmu5qtg

Doctors battle to save one-in-a-million baby who was born with SIX legs

    Baby was one half of a conjoined twin who did not completely develop in the womb
    Doctors believe extra legs belong to twin brother
    Tests being done to see if experts can operate
    Parents of baby are cousins

By Laura Cox

PUBLISHED: 21:32 GMT, 16 April 2012 | UPDATED: 02:08 GMT, 17 April 2012

Pakistani doctors are battling the odds to save a newborn baby born with a rare genetic condition that has left him with six legs.

The one-week-old boy is believed to be one of parasitic twins.

His conjoined twin was born prematurely and incompletely developed, which resulted in the second child having the extra legs, said Jamal Raza, director of the National Institute of Child Health in Karachi, to News.com.

Doctors at the institute are fighting to save the newborn, who remains in an intensive care unit ward.

Raza added that they were planning to operate on the boy and were considering asking for help from foreign experts with more experience in the rare disease, believed to afflict just one in one million babies.

He tried to clarify that the baby did not have six legs – he had two legs and the other four belonged to the other twin.

'Operating on such a baby is not an easy task as proper assessments need to be done first,' he said. 'We need to figure out whether the baby has his twin's limbs or his own. We also need to consider how much the internal organs have developed as the latter could complicate matters and decrease the baby's chances of surviving.'

PARASITIC TWINS

A parasitic twin is sometimes referred to as an asymmetrical or unequal conjoined twin.

It occurs when a twin embryo begins developing in utero, but the pair does not fully separate.

One embryo continues developing at the expense of the other (the parasitic) which will rely on the body of the other for blood supply and organ function.

It is incompletely developed and dependent on the other twin.

The independent twin is called the autosite.

In some cases the body of one twin absorbs the other during development, known as fetus in fetu.

In January a boy in Peru was operated on to remove his parasitic twin from his stomach.

Speaking to the news site, the baby's father, Imran Shaikh, made a plea for help from the government and charities.

'I can't afford to visit Karachi and get treatment for my baby,' said the X-ray technician, who earns the equivalent of $66-a-month. 'I appeal to philanthropists and the government to come forward for the treatment.'

Shaikh and his wife of four years live in Sukkur, around 280 miles north of where his son is being cared for. His wife is reported to be recovering well from the birth and in a good state of health.

His wife - who is also his cousin - has been unable to travel because she had a caesarean section delivery.

He said they were planning on naming their son Umar Farooq.

In a statement given to the AFP news wire, the provincial health department said: 'The doctors are examining the infant to plan for necessary treatment to save the baby's life and ensure he lives a normal life.'

Muhammad Qaisar, a doctor at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, told allvoices.com he was certain the boy could be successfully operated on. 'It is perhaps [the] first child in the history of Pakistan having six legs,' he said.

'The case will also be a test for doctors and we hope for the better," he said.

Since Shaikh made his public plea for help, the Sindh Governor has come forward and directed officials concerned to make sure the child receives all the medical care he needs, Pakistani-based The Nation reported.

[Viking]

His wife - who is also his cousin - has been unable to travel because she had a caesarean section delivery.

The risks of cousin marriage

The risks of cousin marriage

By Justin Rowlatt
BBC Newsnight
Many people would find the idea of marrying a first cousin shocking, but such marriages are not unusual in some British communities.

It is estimated that at least 55% of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins and the tradition is also common among some other South Asian communities and in some Middle Eastern countries.

But there is a problem: marrying someone who is themselves a close family member carries a risk for children - a risk that lies within the code of life; within our genes.

Communities that practice cousin marriage experience higher levels of some very rare but very serious illnesses - illnesses known as recessive genetic disorders.

Now, one Labour MP is calling for an end to the practice. "We have to stop this tradition of first cousin marriages," Keighley MP Ann Cryer tells Newsnight.

Mrs Cryer believes an open debate on the subject is needed because - despite the risks - cousin marriage remains very popular.

Mrs Cryer's constituency is in the Bradford area, where the rates of cousin marriage are well above the national average. It is estimated that three out of four marriages within Bradford's Pakistani community are between first cousins.

The practice remains so popular because the community believes there are real benefits to marrying in the family. Many British Pakistanis celebrate cousin marriage because it is thought to generate more stable relationships.

Strong unions

Such unions are seen as strong, building as they do on already tight family networks.

A Pakistani wedding
"You have an understanding," explains Neila Butt, who married her first cousin, Farooq, nine years ago.

"Family events are really nice because my in-laws and his are related," she says.

"You have the same family history and when you talk about the old times either here or in Pakistan you know who you are talking about. It's just a nicer emotional feel."

But the statistics for recessive genetic illness in cousin marriages make sobering reading.

British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely to have children with genetic disorders than the general population - they account for just over 3% of all births but have just under a third of all British children with such illnesses.

Indeed, Birmingham Primary Care Trust estimates that one in ten of all children born to first cousins in the city either dies in infancy or goes on to develop serious disability as a result of a recessive genetic disorder.

Variant genes

We all have two copies of every gene. If you inherit one variant gene you will not fall ill.

If, however, a child inherits a copy of the same variant gene from each of its parents it will develop one of these illnesses.

The variant genes that cause genetic illness tend to be very rare. In the general population the likelihood of a couple having the same variant gene is a hundred to one.

In cousin marriages, if one partner has a variant gene the risk that the other has it too is far higher - more like one in eight.

Myra Ali has a very rare recessive genetic condition, known as Epidermolisis Bulosa.

Her parents were first cousins. So were her grandparents.

"My skin is really fragile, and can blister very easily with a slight knock or tear," she says.

Myra has strong views about the practice of cousin marriage as a result. "I'm against it, because there's a high risk of illness occurring", she says.

Denial

According to Ann Cryer MP, whose Keighley constituency has a large Pakistani population, much of the Pakistani community is in denial about the problem.

She tells Newsnight that she believes it is time for an open debate on the subject: "As we address problems of smoking, drinking, obesity, we say it's a public health issue, and therefore we all have to get involved with it in persuading people to adopt a different lifestyle", she says.

"I think the same should be applied to this problem in the Asian community. They must adopt a different lifestyle. They must look outside the family for husbands and wives for their young people."
Recessive genetic disorders are caused by variant genes. There are hundreds of different recessive genetic disorders, many associated with severe disability and sometimes early death, and each caused by a different variant gene.

[Darth Wagtaros]

And that baby grew up to be.... Doctor Octopus.

[Ed Anger]

Baby born with sig legs

[Valmy]

Oh come on.  The 'x' key is nowhere near the 'g' key.

[Ed Anger]

[Ed Anger]

[Martinus]

If the baby has six legs, doesn't it mean it has legs of two twin brothers, not just one? 

[Caliga]

Next Tim is going to start posting articles about the Bat Boy.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

looks like some kind of Reaper product.

the effects of this first-cousing marrying must be getting quite noticeable after a couple centuries i guess.