VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City-based Children’s Hospital 2 has announced to have successfully conducted an operation for a baby with four hands on October 4.
The patient is a boy baby named Nguyen Trong Luyen, from Chau Thanh district in the southern province of Tay Ninh.

Besides two normal arms, the baby has two extra smaller arms on his left chest, each of which has hair and five fingers with five nails. However, the two extra arms are paralyzed.

The operation was conducted in four hours, by 15 doctors and nurses. Doctor Truong Quang Dinh, deputy director of the Children’s Hospital 2, was the main operator.

After cutting the two extra hands, doctors discovered that the baby’s liver is on the left and he has two bowels.


According to doctor Dinh, the baby is recovering very well and it is very lucky that the two extra hands did not deeply trespass and affect internal organs.

According to the boy’s mother, Le Thi Ngoc Giau, 23, when she was pregnant for 4 or 5 months, she went to Tay Ninh General Hospital for a pregnancy check and found out that the baby had leg atrophy.

The mother was advised to go to Tu Du Hospital in HCM City for an abortion where doctors confirmed the leg atrophy, but did not find out about the extra arms. But she and her husband decided to keep the baby and planned to treat his leg disease later.

Giau’s father, Le Van Muc, joined the Vietnam War in 1961-1975 and had patrolled in areas where Agent Orange was sprayed by US troops. Besides Giau, Muc has another son called Le Van Sang, who has a paralytic arm since birth, probably due to the AO effect.

Thanh Huyen