Baby born with four legs and two male sex organs is 'God's gift' say Indian parents

A woman in the Indian state of Karnataka gave birth to a baby with two extra legs and two male sex organs. The infant was born at the Dhadeasugure Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Raichur to a couple from Puladinni village in the same district on 21 January.

Dr Virupaksha T was on call at the time of the birth and said that "it was a normal delivery". The infant was later transferred to the Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) for neonatal care.

"I referred the family to VIMS. I spoke to the surgeons there on Sunday, and they told me that the baby was being kept under observation. I hope the infant becomes normal," Dr Virupaksha added.

Surgeons are currently looking into the baby's condition and will determine if additional treatment is required. The parents, Lalitamma (23) and Chennabasava (26) are reluctant to seek further medical care because of the expected costs.

"It's God's gift to us," Lalitamma told the Times Of India newspaper. "My first son, born three years ago, is healthy. We are poor and cannot afford expensive treatment."

In two similar yet unrelated cases, babies were born with two sets of arms and legs, one to a couple in the north Indian state of Jharkhand in 2015 and earlier to a couple from the eastern state of West Bengal in 2014.

In both instances, members of the public considered the infants as incarnations of Hindu deity Ganesh who is also depicted as having multiple arms.

Polymelia, the birth defect by which the individual is born with extra limbs is most often the result of an embryo forming as conjoined twins. The weaker of the two then degenerates, except for one or more limbs, which end up attached to the other twin. Most often, the extra limbs are deformed and shrunken.