Girl born with Four Legs Gets Successful Surgery

A baby girl from the Ivory Coast born with four legs and two spines has been successfully separated from a parasitic twin in a rare and complex surgery at a Chicago hospital.

Ten-month-old Dominique underwent a six-hour procedure involving five surgeons at the Advocate Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, on March 8. She is now thriving with the Chicago foster family who will look after her until she is well enough to return home, her doctors and foster mother told Reuters on Monday.

“It’s going rather well. She was only in the hospital a total of five days. She’s been home with ‘step-mom’ and just doing very, very well,” said pediatric and reconstructive surgeon Frank A. Vicari.

Dominique was born with a parasitic twin. The bottom half of her not-fully-developed twin’s body protruded from her neck and back.

“A parasitic twin is an identical twin that fails to fully separate in development,” said John R. Ruge, a pediatric neurosurgeon at the hospital. “In other words, not another independent twin, but a twin that was dependent on her body system, such that Dominique’s heart and lungs provided the nourishment.”

Doctors did not give Dominique’s family name.

Nancy Swabb, from Edgebrook, Illinois, has looked after Dominique since she arrived in the United States for the surgery.

“She’s been a joy. We really enjoyed having her in our family,” said Swabb.

Reuters