The Girl Who Was Worshipped as a Deity

At Medlink, we learnt about Lakshmi Tatma.

Lakshmi Tatma was born in 2005, in a village in the Araria District, Bihar.  She was worshipped as an incarnation of the god, Lakshmi, due to the fact she appeared to have been born with eight limbs.

In reality, Lakshmi's extra limbs, were the result of her being an ischiopagus (the fused lower half of two bodies) conjoined twin.  The two babies had joined and her twins head had then begun to disintegrate and its chest was severely underdeveloped, resulting in, what looked like one child with eight limbs.

Lakshmi came from a very poor, labouring family (her parents earned less than 40 rupees per day), which meant they could not afford the 8201966.42 rupees for the surgery.  However, Lakshmi's spinal chord was fused with that of her twins, their nerves were entangled.  Lakshmi's abdominal aorta gave off arteries that supplied her parasitic twin's legs with blood and doctors predicted that without surgery, she was unlikely to live into her teens.

Lakshmi's surgery began on 6 November 2007 and was funded entirely by the hospitals charitable wing.  The surgery lasted for 27 hours and was split into the following sections:

• Abdominal surgery to remove the twin's organs
• Remove Lakshmi's dying kidney and replace it with the twin's functioning kidney 
• Move the reproductive system and urinary bladder into Lakshmi
• Amputation of the twin's legs at the hip joints (which caused heavy bleeding)
• Cut the fused backbone (had the possibility of causing paralysis)
• Separation 
• External Fixation (to hold the pelvis in place)
• Sutures

Due to the work of 30 surgeons, Lakshmi's operation was successful.  She was in hospital for a month after the surgery and has now recovered and leads a normal life.

Stem Cell Research

Been doing some research for the Stem Cell Paper and found this article that really interested me and has possibly inspired me to take the 'Stem Cells Being Used To Grow Organs' research route.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8584443/Pigs-could-grow-human-organs-in-stem-cell-breakthrough.html

Essentially, it's an article explaining how stem cells from one species can be injected into another species and will then grow the organs of the species that the stem cells originally came from.

To begin with, scientists created genetically modified mouse embryos, designed to have an inability to produce their own organs.  These genetically modified embryos were then injected with the stem cells of rats, producing mice with the internal organs of a rat.

Scientists also tried this technique on mice that were unable to grow their own pancreas, and found that as the mice matured, they showed no signs of diabetes and had fully functional rat pancreas'.  And scientists are now travelling down the route of 'curing' diabetes, a previously controlled, but not curable condition.

This is of particular interest to me, because there could be the possibility of growing other vital organs, potentially saving patients and reducing transplant lists.

The current trend in the number of cases of diabetes, that are diagnosed, is significantly rising and the ability to be able to grow patients new organs could prevent the complications associated with diabetes, such as: Blindness, Heart Attacks and Heart Disease, Strokes, Kidney Failure, Blood Vessel Disease and Amputation of the Extremities (especially the feet) and Nerve Damage.  These problems are usually as a result of patients improperly treating themselves and research has shown that patients who manage their blood sugars at a normal level reduce their chances of developing such complications by almost 50%.  However, if these patients were offered a new pancreas, patients could lead a much more normal life and be free of complications, especially if the organ was grown from their own stem cells, as their body is less likely to reject the new organ. 

Medlink 2011

So, just got back from my amazing experience in Nottingham.  WELL WORTH IT.

Learnt so much over the last few days (so much love for the cardiovascular system right now!!), and loved every second of it.  Medlink has really made up my mind to be a doctor, and has just made me even more determined to prove all those critics wrong!

In a moment of madness last night, I signed up to write a paper on Stem Cell research. It may take some time, but in terms of experience and just general interest in the topic, I think it would be most definitely worth the time and effort required, and I shall post my research on here!  Actually something worthwhile to write about! haha.

I would recommend medlink to ANY hopeful med student.  I would say I am a student of average intelligence (target straight A's, but in terms of GCSE's, average), and would just advise people NOT to be put off by the fact that there are going to be so many people at Medlink that are much cleverer than them academically.  Just remember, medicine is largely about the grades, but not solely!