Imagine a person with four legs? He is not a fictional creature nor a crazy scientist's invention.

Ning Di, a 1-year-old boy from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was born with four legs and yesterday underwent surgery -- the first of its kind in China -- to remove the two additional legs and intestines at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University.

Doctors said the problem was due to an aberration during the early stages of the embryo, which should have evolved into twins. But only one child was born, carrying "the twin half's" two legs on his right hip, with a poorly developed anus between the additional legs.

Because of the two extra limbs, with six toes on one foot and four toes on the other, Ning's own right leg and feet were malformed. So, Ning walked awkwardly.

With the additional appendages imposing great suffering on Ning, his parents brought him to the city's Children's Hospital last week.

The surgery began at 8:30 a.m. yesterday. An hour later, his surplus 685-gram legs were cut off from his body. The doctors then worked on the additional anus, cutting 50 centimeters of the extra intestines all the way from the anus to his own abdominal cavity. That done, they remedied Ning's malformed right feet, putting it in plaster. The whole surgery took about four hours.

"Fortunately, the evolving embryo didn't leave any important organs inside his body," said hospital spokeswoman Luo Weifen. "The surgery was a success."

( Eastday.com November 1, 2002)