17 replies to this topic

[Mary]

Two pictures below, not terribly graphic but didn't want to startle anyone...
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Baby with 2 faces born in north India
Doctors say infant with rare condition is doing well

updated 9:36 a.m. CT, Tues., April. 8, 2008

SAINI SUNPURA, India - A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.

The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated — she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.

"My daughter is fine — like any other child," said Vinod Singh, 23, a poor farm worker.

Lali has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini Sunpura, 25 miles east of New Delhi. When she left the hospital, eight hours after a normal delivery on March 11, she was swarmed by villagers, said Sabir Ali, the director of Saifi Hospital.

"She drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time," Ali said.

Rural India is deeply superstitious and the little girl is being hailed as a return of the Hindu goddess of valor, Durga, a fiery deity traditionally depicted with three eyes and many arms.

'Leading a normal life'
Up to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings, Singh told The Associated Press.

"Lali is God's gift to us," said Jaipal Singh, a member of the local village council. "She has brought fame to our village."

Village chief Daulat Ram said he planned to build a temple to Durga in the village.

"I am writing to the state government to provide money to build the temple and help the parents look after their daughter," Ram said.

Lali's condition is often linked to serious health complications, but the doctor said she was doing well.

"She is leading a normal life with no breathing difficulties," said Ali, adding that he saw no need for surgery.

Lali's parents were married in February 2007. Lali is their first child.

Singh said he took his daughter to a hospital in New Delhi where doctors suggested a CT scan to determine whether her internal organs were normal, but Singh said he felt it was unnecessary.

"I don't feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems," he said.


Parents Sushma, left, and Vinod Singh pose with their daughter Lali  in Saini Sunpura.


The baby's rare condition is often linked to serious health complications, but Lali is doing well, a doctor says.

[jpraibis]

wow
hard to imagine how she is going to exist

[eva83]

maybe her life won't be too bad if she's already worshiped as a incarnation of some goddess, maybe it would be harder for her in our so called civilized societies

[kohoutekdriver8]

I've seen pictures of things like this, people and other species, and they rarely survive birth.  Remember that TV show "That's Incredible" from ca. 1980?  They had a man from IIRC China who had an extra rudimentary face attached to one side of his jawbone.  Some people accused him of using theatrical makeup, but this extra face moved independently so there's no way anyone could have faked that.

Ever heard of Frank Lentini?  He had a partial duplication of his lower body, and lived to be about 80 years old.  His memory was revived a few years ago when a band called itself "Kill Frank Lentini."  His descendants (yes, he married and had a number of children) were not amused.


http://en.wikipedia....i/Frank_Lentini

[kohoutekdriver8]

And here are some pictures.

http://phreeque.trip...nk_lentini.html

[DericksHam]

wait. all of her 4 eyes are functional?!? i wonder how she sees the world. maybe something like bee. she can see 180 degress at once?

[OneArpeggioPete]

i keep wondering, what happens to these babies once the novelty wears off and they're out of the news. remember that little girl in india a couple of months ago who had a duplication of the lower body and was operated on? she was worshipped as a godess, too. like this girl, she came from a poor family. so what'll happen to either of them later in life? godesses or now, i fear they'll both end up sewing sneakers at the age of six. :(

and, btw, wtf about "superstitious"? i always find it highly amusing how whichever set of beliefs the target demographic of any media outlet subscribes to is obviously right and the way it should be, whilee all the other ones are "superstitious".

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[kohoutekdriver8]

dikhead said:

wait. all of her 4 eyes are functional?!? i wonder how she sees the world. maybe something like bee. she can see 180 degress at once?

If she lives long enough to tell us, and her brain is (or brains are) fully functional, it would be interesting to find out.

[kohoutekdriver8]

OneArpeggioPete said:

i keep wondering, what happens to these babies once the novelty wears off and they're out of the news. remember that little girl in india a couple of months ago who had a duplication of the lower body and was operated on? she was worshipped as a godess, too. like this girl, she came from a poor family. so what'll happen to either of them later in life? godesses or now, i fear they'll both end up sewing sneakers at the age of six. :(

and, btw, wtf about "superstitious"? i always find it highly amusing how whichever set of beliefs the target demographic of any media outlet subscribes to is obviously right and the way it should be, whilee all the other ones are "superstitious".

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

Good point, assuming she lives very long.  Remember the Egyptian baby who had an extra head attached to her head?  She died about a year after the extra head was removed. :(

A while back, I was watching a show on Discovery or some such channel about an archeological dig in Florida, and they had found, while excavating an Indian burial ground, the skeleton of a young man with severe spina bifida.  People like this were usually left to die, but he obviously wasn't.  A doctor who examined the bones said he probably died of osteomyelitis (not unusual until about 70 years ago) and there was speculation that he may have been kept alive because of some religious significance.  They then showed a drawing of two men, presumably in ceremonial dress, carrying a disabled young man on a stretcher, which was probably indeed his way of getting around when he was too big to carry.

[onemaptwolegend]

very sweet.

[Hezalin]

craniofacial duplicity, so I'm assuming then she's not a parasitic conjoined twin? Hmm, that's what I thought when I first heard about this story, I see tv programs about things like that all the ime.

[Red Frog]

Hezalin said:

I see tv programs about things like that all the ime.

You need to watch some different TV.

[Hezalin]

Red Frog said:

You need to watch some different TV.

I like Discivery health, always been fascinated by the different things the human body can do.

[DericksHam]

you weren't fascinated by red-asssed baboons doing it doggie style?

[zveozdi]

dikhead said:

you weren't fascinated by red-asssed baboons doing it doggie style?

Zing!

[kohoutekdriver8]

Hezalin said:

I like Discivery health, always been fascinated by the different things the human body can do.

Hezalin, you have probably noticed that Discovery Health's quality of programming has declined markedly in recent months.

I found out why (maybe).

It's in the process of transitioning to a channel called OWN - the Oprah Winfrey Network.

:eek:

[Hezalin]

kohoutekdriver8 said:

Hezalin, you have probably noticed that Discovery Health's quality of programming has declined markedly in recent months.

I found out why (maybe).

It's in the process of transitioning to a channel called OWN - the Oprah Winfrey Network.

:eek:

this i did not know and it stinks. I'mgonna miss my Dr. G! bastards. althoughI haven't really watched discoveryhealth in quite osme time, obviously I dind't notice the decline.

[kohoutekdriver8]

Some of Dr. G's programs have been in reruns on the regular Discovery channel.  You have to look for them, however, because they aren't broadcast on any regular schedule.

I mentioned on another board that DHC should be renamed The Multiple Pregnancy Channel and got a bunch of recommendations.  I don't mind an occasional show, but all day, every day?  And only of the sets that survive healthy and intact?

They used to do shows about such pregnancies that did not have good outcomes, to give a more realistic picture.  One of the best was about a set of quintuplets where the only survivor is blind and has a seizure disorder. :(  He is otherwise mentally and physically normal and goes to regular school, but they had to be delivered at 24 weeks because the mother was going to die otherwise.  

But really, the saddest one was about a set of Canadian quadruplets (all healthy, BTW) whose parents had nothing but enemies.  The dad had ditched his first wife for their mom (he actually said, on the air, "I wasn't a good father the first time around, so I'm making up for it with my second family" :mad: ) and when those babies were born, they did not get ONE casserole or ONE pack of diapers or ONE offer to babysit their other child!  Good grief, people do that for families with singletons!