A team of specialists at Fortis Hospital in Delhi have responded to Arun Kumar’s plea for help and organised a series of tests to find out how the legs attached can be treated.
Arun Kumar, 22, was born with two extra legs growing from his lower back – one underdeveloped and the other permanently bent at the knee.
After living for 15 years without any kind of treatment, Arun, from Uttar Pradesh, India, appealed through social media for medical help to remove his extra legs
Despite not being able to move his extra legs, Arun does have feeling in them and carrying the weight on his back is damaging his posture and ability to walk.
When Arun was born his parents took him to hospitals and sought treatment in cities across India.
Arun’s mother Kokila Devi said: “During childbirth he got stuck and didn’t come out without pain. And when he came out, all his limbs were the same size.
The doctors at Farrukhabad deemed Arun’s extra legs too risky to operate on – especially on such a young baby – and the family were sent home.
Despite Arun’s parents travelling all over the country for five years to get the help their first son needed, the family were forced to return to their village and learn to live with Arun’s condition.
After a successful social media appeal, Arun was contacted by specialists at Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Delhi for an assessment, and a series of scans and medical tests to see if he can have surgery.
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Hermant Sharma, who examined Arun, discovered he also has a second pelvis, and arranged a series of tests, including MRI and CT scans, x-rays and echocardiograms, to find out how the extra legs are connected and how they are affecting his body.
A new series follows Arun as he journeys to Delhi for treatment and finds out whether he can undergo the surgery which will transform his life.
