Three months ago, in the Ugandan village of Nabigingo, a baby with four arms and four legs was born to Margaret Avino and Boniface Okongo. The extra arms and legs belonged to the so-called twin parasite (lat. Ischiopagus, ischiopagus), which was fixed in the boy's crotch.
In panic, the parents brought the newborn Paul Makis to the nearest hospital, but the doctors there said that they could not help.
Then the desperate couple took their son to a hospital in the capital Kampala, where doctors agreed to perform a complex operation. During the examination, doctors found that, in addition to the extra limbs, the boy's heart is on the right, and the liver on the left, that is, not where they should be. It was also found that the twin parasite, which had two arms and two legs, but did not have a heart, had grown into the pelvic bone.
The doctors waited until Paul was a little older so that he was ready for surgery. The operation was carried out on August 18 and lasted three hours.
Babies with twin parasites are extremely rare, with a probability of one in a million. Children who have not removed such a "twin" usually do not live long. Babies born with this mutation find it easier to perform surgery than to "separate" Siamese twins, who may have common lungs, heart and other vital organs.