Last updated at 08:43 14 November 2007

A two-year-old Indian girl born with eight limbs has astonished doctors with a remarkable recovery following major surgery.

Lakshmi Tatma was born with four legs and four arms - but has had them removed in a gruelling operation.

She was today removed from intensive care following a procedure which removed her headless 'parasitic twin' a week ago, and was reunited with her parents.

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Without the operation to remove her twin, who was fused at the pelvis, the toddler - hailed as the reincarnation of the Hindu goddess Vishnu - was unlikely to live beyond her early teens, medics said.

Doctors at the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore, where Laskhmi underwent the 27-hour operation, admitted they were amazed at her quick recovery.

"She is alert, eating solid food and on nothing stronger than paracetemol," said Dr Sharan Patil, who led the operation.

"She has well and truly passed the danger stage and is on course to make a full recovery. There may be further operations down the line, to correct her club feet, but so far so good. She is making remarkable progress."

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In the first pictures since she regained consciousness five days ago, Lakshmi can be seen happily smiling with her mother Poonam, father Shambu and older brother Mithilesh, four.

Doctors predict she could be released from hospital shortly after Christmas.

"Lakshmi is behaving exactly like her old self, it's amazing," said Poonam.

"She remembers exactly who she likes and dislikes. Some people have come in her room and she points and screams at them until they leave.

"But she is smiling again and happy to see those she likes.

"She has developed a taste for the hospital canteen's raspberry milkshake, which we resorted to when she refused normal milk, but other than that she is the same as before only with two legs."

"She has a very sweet tooth, so we have been treating her a little. She's been bought a beautiful pink dress for the first time in her life she can fit in normal clothes."

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Lakshmi was born with eight limbs in Rampur Kodar Katti, a remote village without electricity or water in the crime-ridden state of Bihar, 20 miles from India's border with Nepal.

Her poverty-stricken parents, who earn less than 50p a day as casual labourers, were turned away from every government hospital they visited for help.

Until the intervention of Dr Patil, who visited Bihar in January to asses whether an operation was viable, Lakshmi had never received any medical attention.

"Her recovery is God's will, just as it was God's will that she was born like that in the first place," said her father Sahmbu, "but what the doctor's have done is like a miracle.

"The doctors are like gods - they can make the living dead and the dead living. They have made Lakshmi a normal little girl. It was my dream and it has come true."

Speaking at a press conference to declare the operation a complete success, Dr Patil said: "All the surgeons' lives have been enriched by our contact with Laskhmi and I really feel it has been our privilege.

"By no means are we completely done with Lakshmi, but so far so good. She has a plaster cast on both legs at the moment to hold her feet in a steady position and to keep her wounds together.

"Her wounds are both raw and extensive, so that is something we are paying great attention to at the moment. Her recovery from the operation overall has been excellent."