8-Limbed 'God Baby' Draws Crowds in India

Birth defect causes pandemonium among believers
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2014 2:17 AM CST
Updated Nov 23, 2014 10:15 AM CST
8-Limbed 'God Baby' Draws Crowds in India
The boy's resemblance to a Hindu god has drawn crowds of believers to Baruipur.   (Shutterstock)

A baby boy born with four arms and four legs has been nicknamed "God Boy" and drawn thousands of excited people to the city of Baruipur in eastern India. The boy's family is overjoyed because the birth defect makes him resemble a Hindu god, according to the Daily Mail. "The nurses said he was badly deformed, but I could see this was a sign from God," a relative tells local media. "In fact, this is a miracle, it's God's baby. Indian gods have extra limbs just like this." A police officer struggling to control the curious crowds, however, says it is "tragic" and that hundreds of people are praying and crying in the streets; some even believe the birth is a sign of the end of the world.

The boy's condition is believed to be the result of a "parasitic twin" attached to him in the womb. "With conjoined twins, you have two living fetuses that are attached either by the head, abdomen, or legs," the chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Hackensack University Medical Center tells Fox News. But with a parasitic twin, "it's the same principle, except there is a malformation of one of those twins," he says. "As a result, the twin never fully develops and is then partially encased in the living fetus." An eight-limbed girl born in India in 2005 created a similar stir. After a 27-hour operation to sever the twin when she was 2, Lakshmi Tatma was able to walk. (More strange stuff stories.)

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