Toddler Girl Reportedly Born with 14 Fingers Has Life-Changing Surgery
One little girl from China reportedly underwent an operation miraculous enough to change her appearance and life.
When doctors at Shenyang Medical College in China first examined the 3-year-old’s hands, they were unsure of how to approach her rare condition. The little girl was allegedly born with two extra appendages on each hand, connected to or branching off of her thumbs.
Dr. Zhan Jie, hand surgery specialist, said that the toddler was “quite a rare patient” according to Metro.
According to Medical News Today, the condition is called polydactyly, and can present itself in many different ways. “Thumb duplication” is one of the rarer forms of the condition, affecting only 1,000 to 10,000 babies.
Reportedly, the condition has run in the girl’s family for generations. Until recently, the high cost of surgery had prevented her family members from seeking treatment.
Nevertheless, the little girl’s parents were determined to find a surgeon capable of making life a little easier for their daughter. After consulting many different hospitals and doctors, they seemed to find hope at Shenyang Medical College.
Although the surgery would prove complicated, Zhan and his team were confident in their ability to perform the operation, which is clear in the results.
According to Metro, Zhan promised the family that the toddler would retain the ability to use her hands after the procedure.
“The surgery was complicated by the fact that the fingers we wanted to keep and those we wanted to remove weren’t clear and obvious,” Zhan said. “Besides removing the extra digits, we also needed to make corrections to the angle.”
After the unnecessary digits were removed, extra measures were taken to straighten her thumbs.
Before and after images reveal the startling difference the operation made to the toddler’s hands. Only one thumb remains where two extra fingers used to extend from her palms.
Two months after the operation, the little girl is reportedly developing normally. Although it is unclear whether or not the 3-year-old’s hands will require more doctor visits in the future, she revisited Zhan two weeks after the initial surgery to have her sutures removed.
In the end, the tricky operation seems to have been successful.
“Both we and the patient’s family are satisfied with the appearance of her hands,” Zhan said.
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