Strange baby: 31 fingers and toes in Hong Kong

A plea for help: Chinese couple seeks assistance for their son with 11 fingers and extra toes

Baby Honghong, currently 3 months old and residing in Hubei province, was born with 15 fingers and 16 toes. Each of his hands has two palms, but no thumbs.

After local hospital doctors informed Honghong’s parents that surgical treatment for this condition would be extremely challenging, they are now actively seeking methods to treat their son.

According to People’s Daily, Honghong suffers from polydactyly, a condition in which a child is born with extra fingers or toes, occurring in approximately 1 in 1,000 births. However, having as many as 11 extra fingers, like Honghong, is exceedingly rare.

Honghong’s mother also has polydactyly in both her hands and feet. Concerned about passing on the condition to her child, she underwent multiple check-ups and ultrasounds during her pregnancy at hospitals in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Even when she was nearly 5 months pregnant, she visited Phudiyan Maternity Hospital for a 4D ultrasound, but the doctors assured her that the baby did not have any deformities.

When Honghong was born, the couple was shocked to find that his condition was even more severe than his mother’s. Each of Honghong’s feet has 8 toes, while his hands have 8 and 7 fingers, respectively.

Liu Hong, a professor in the Department of Pediatric Orthopedics at Hubei Provincial People’s Hospital, informed Honghong’s father, Zou Chenglin, that the surgical procedure would be challenging. Honghong is currently too young to undergo anesthesia, but he will need to undergo surgery between 6 months and 1 year of age before the bones fuse.

However, due to their poor economic conditions, the surgical procedures, which cost hundreds of thousands of Chinese yuan, are an enormous financial burden for Zou and his wife. Currently, the couple is making every effort to find ways to afford treatment for their child.

 

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