Varsha Sena, two, was born with an extra leg
Varsha Sena, two, was born with an extra leg sprouting from her back due to a rare condition which affects one in a million infants
A baby girl has been born with an extra leg sprouting from her back due to a rare condition which affects one in a million infants.

Two-year-old Varsha Sena, from Delhi, was born with two legs, and a third limb growing sideways out of her spine.

Varsha suffers from a rare condition called polymelia, which causes a person to be born with extra limbs, often arms or legs.

Doctors at the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital, Delhi, were able to successfully amputate the unwanted third leg at the end of last month.

Varsha suffers from a rare condition called polymelia, which causes a person to be born with extra limbs, often arms or legs. She had an extra limb growing sideways out of the left side of her back
Varsha suffers from a rare condition called polymelia, which causes a person to be born with extra limbs, often arms or legs. She had an extra limb growing sideways out of the left side of her back

The lead surgeon, Dr Daljit Singh, said: 'The baby was suffering from polymelia.

'It is a condition in which is a person is born with more than four limbs. We have not seen such a case in the last fifty years.

'This was the first case of polymelia in which the spinal cord had developed into an additional limb.'

Varsha was born at Bara Hindu Rao Hospital in Delhi in 2014, and was later sent to the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital for surgery to remove her extra leg.

After seeing her baby for the first time, her mother, Komal Sena, 24, said she was scared of her child.

She said: 'I was scared when I saw my daughter for the first time.'

Pictured is an X-ray of Versha's extra leg
'This was the first case of polymelia in which the spinal cord had developed into an additional limb,' said surgeon Dr Daljit Singh. Pictured is an X-ray of Versha's extra leg
The family calls Varsha by the name of 'Ganesh' - a Hindu God with and elephant head who is normally depicted with four legs - due to her extra limbs.

The rare disorder occurs in the womb when the cells form abnormally during embryonic development.

The embryo begins to develop as conjoined twins. But one twin stops growing, leaving the remaining developments - often limbs - of the undeveloped twin attached to the body of the live baby.

There are very few known cases of polymelia around the world.

In 2014 MailOnline reported on the case of another Indian boy, from Gujarat, who was born with three arms.

His right arm in the normal place, but two arms on his left side, and doctors at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital were able to remove the extra limb.

In 2012 MailOnline reported on a newborn girl from Pakistan who was born with a third arm due to polymelia.

The extra arm was joined to her back near her spinal cord.

At just four years old the baby girl, who was from the Dera Ghazi Khan District in the Punjab province of Pakistan, underwent an operation to remove the extra arm.

The most well known case of the condition was Lakshmi Tatma, from India, who was born with eight limbs.

A parasitic twin who had stopped developing and died in the womb was attached to her body.

Doctors removed the extra limbs in 2007.