Pakistan doctors fight to save life of baby with six legs

April 16, 2012 in Other

Doctors in Pakistan are fighting to save the life of a baby boy born with six legs because of a rare genetic condition, hospital officials said Monday.

The infant was born to the wife of an X-ray technician a week ago, Jamal Raza, the director of National Institute of the in Karachi, told reporters.

"It is not one baby actually. They are two, one of them is premature," he said.

A doctor at the institute who did not wish to be named said the extra limbs were the result of a genetic disease which would affect only one in a million or more babies.

"The doctors are examining the infant to plan for necessary treatment to save the baby's life and ensure he lives a normal life," said a statement from the provincial health department.

Imran Shaikh, the baby's father who lives in Sukkur, around 450 kilometres (280 miles) north of Karachi, said he was grateful his son was being treated.

"We are a poor family. I am thankful to the government for helping us treating my baby," he told the media.

(c) 2012 AFP

not rated yet  

Rank not rated yet
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Decisions to forgo life support may depend heavily on the ICU where patients are treated

The decision to limit life support in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) appears to be significantly influenced by physician practices and/or the culture of the hospital, suggests new findings from researchers at the ...

Other created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

People on higher incomes are happier with new knees

Knee replacement surgery is a very common procedure. However, it does not always resolve function or pain in all the recipients of new knees. A study by Robert Barrack, MD and his colleagues from the Washington University ...

Other created 3 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New search engine finds rare diagnoses

Doctors are trained to think "common disease" when they meet patients in their practices, and as they rarely or never meet a rare disease, it often takes many years to reach the right diagnosis. A new search tool called FindZebra ...

Other created 3 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Delayed transfer to the ICU increases risk of death in hospital patients

Delayed transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU) in hospitalized patients significantly increases the risk of dying in the hospital, according to a new study from researchers in Chicago.

Other created 5 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Free distribution of auditory orientation training system for the visually impaired

Researchers from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) of Tohoku University have jointly developed an auditory ...

Other created 6 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


Drugs found to both prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease in mice

Researchers at USC have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat Alzheimer's Disease in mice.

If you can remember it, you can remember it wrong

(Medical Xpress)—Native peoples in regions where cameras are uncommon sometimes react with caution when their picture is taken. The fear that something must have been stolen from them to create the photo ...

B vitamins could delay dementia

(Medical Xpress)—Despite spending billions of dollars on research and development, drug companies have been unable to come up with effective treatments for dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Now, A. ...

Insight into the dazzling impact of insulin in cells

Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes.

Enrichment therapy effective among children with autism, study finds

Children with autism showed significant improvement after six months of simple sensory exercises at home using everyday items such as scents, spoons and sponges, according to UC Irvine neurobiologists.

Finding a family for a pair of orphan receptors in the brain

Researchers at Emory University have identified a protein that stimulates a pair of "orphan receptors" found in the brain, solving a long-standing biological puzzle and possibly leading to future treatments for neurological ...