On Tuesday, medical professionals in Shanghai were evaluating potential surgical interventions for a two-month-old baby boy who was born with a remarkably developed third arm. A doctor examined the infant, who is 59 days old, at a hospital in Shanghai on Monday, May 29, 2006. The medical team is assessing the baby’s overall physical health before making a decision regarding the removal of his extra arm.
Neither of the boy’s two left arms is fully functional and tests have so far been unable to determine which was more developed, said Dr. Chen Bochang, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children’s Medical Center.
“His case is quite peculiar. We have no record of any child with such a complete third arm,” Chen said in a telephone interview. “It’s quite difficult to decide how to do the operation on him.”
