On Tuesday doctors in Bangalore began to operate a 2-year-old girl that was borne with four arms and four legs. The operation is due to last 40 hours and according to the doctors is going good so far.

The girl’s name is Lakshmi and was born with two pares of arms and legs due to a “parasitic twin” that stopped growing in her mother’s womb. Apparently the surviving fetus absorbed the kidneys, limbs, other body parts from the fetus that stopped developing.

Dr. Sharan Patil, the orthopedic surgeon who leads the operation says that they have succeeded in separating the spinal cord and that body tissues were isolated and retained. These tissues are vital for the girl.

The doctor said that now orthopedic surgeons will begin to separate fused bones that connect the girl with her twin. Her condition is stable and she responds well to the surgery.

Lakshimi was named by her parents, Shambhu and Poonam Tatma, after the Hindu goddess of Wealth who has four arms.  Some people from their village in the state of Bihar venerate her.

According to the Associated Press her father said: “Everybody considers her a goddess at our village. All this expenditure has happened to make her normal. So far, everything is fine.”

Her parents had to hide her as a circus wanted to buy her.

Still many villagers opposed the surgery and plan to erect a temple in her name, considering her sacred.

After Dr. Patil visited Lakshmi in her village, the Sparsh Hospital in Bangalore agreed to fund the $200,000 operation.

The operation will go on with a team of 30 doctors that will work in shifts of 8 hours in order to separate her spinal column and kidney from that of her twin.

Without the operation doctors say that Lakshmi could not survive beyond early adolescence.

Doctors that conduct this operation include: orthopedics, neurosurgery, pediatrics, and plastic surgery.