For the most part, we’re all born with ten fingers and ten toes, two ears and a pair of eyes.
Most of us have a nose that we smell out of, two legs that we walk on, and two hands that we use every single day. One of the first things doctors do when they deliver a baby is to count the newborn’s fingers and toes. Unless a baby is born with some kind of defect or mysterious illness, the outcome is usually the same: ten fingers and ten toes.
There are people out there, though, who were born with mysterious extra body parts. From extra fingers and toes to extra legs, some people out there got a little unlucky in the genetic lottery when it came to their birth.
To read more about people who have been born with extra body parts, continue reading below.
1. Hong Hong was born in China in January 2016. The pregnancy was a successful one with no major issues throughout the term. That is until Hong Hong was born with 31 fingers and toes.
That’s right, he was born with 15 fingers and 16 toes. He also has two palms on each of his hands. Doctors diagnosed the baby with polydactylism, which is a congenital condition typically found in dogs, cats, and some humans.
Believe it or not, polydactyl is actually not such an uncommon condition. According to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, it affects roughly one in every 1,000 births. The condition is usually passed down from family members, which makes sense because Hong Hong’s mother also has polydactylism herself. She has six fingers and toes.
Extra fingers and toes are usually removed surgically when a baby is born with the condition. Hong Hong’s parents are currently trying to raise money to fund the operation to have their son’s extra body parts removed.
2. Zhang Ruifang, commonly referred to as the Goat Woman, began developing a horn in her forehead when she was 100 years old.
The horn grew over two inches in length, and another one appears to be growing on the other side of her forehead.
Doctors are unable to determine what the horn is and why it is growing. Some doctors suggest that it resembles a cutaneous horn, which is a keratinous skin tumor that looks very similar to horns.
Cutaneous horns are made up of the same type of protein that our hair and nails are made of, which is called keratin. The same protein also forms horns and feathers in animals.
3. George Lippert was born in Germany in the early 1840s with two hearts and three legs.
Lippert participated in circus acts and freak shows. He was billed as “the only Three Legged Man on Earth” for some time. Considering the only known images of George Lippert are illustrations, it is unknown for sure how accurate his story may be.
No photographic evidence of Lippert’s condition exists today.
It was not known that Lippert had two hearts until his death in 1906. Lippert died of tuberculosis at 62 years old. It was not until the autopsy that doctors discovered that he had lived with two hearts.
4. Alfie Clamp was born with severe disabilities. He was also born blind.
Because he was born with severe disabilities and an unexplained blindness, doctors ran several tests on him to find out what was wrong with him.
The tests revealed that Alfie’s seventh chromosome carried an extra strand of DNA. No doctor had ever seen this before. The condition is so rare that it doesn’t even have a name.
Although Alfie can now see, he still suffers from a string of health problems ranging from digestive issues to metabolic problems to muscle weakness. Alfie’s parents and older sister — who are perfectly healthy — even had their own DNA tests done. The tests determined that they did not carry the extra gene.
5. Hannah Kersey hails from England and suffers from a rare condition which affects only one in 1 million women all over the world.
The condition is called uterus didelphys and is characterized by the abnormal development of a woman’s reproductive organs.
Because of her rare condition, Kersey was born with two wombs. Kersey and her doctors did not know she had a second uterus until she gave birth to her first son. Doctors advised her that it was likely she would never become pregnant again.
Kersey went against all the odds when it was revealed she was pregnant again—and this time she was expecting triplets. The babies were conceived from two different eggs and were fertilized by two different sperm. One egg produced identical twins, while the other egg produced a single baby in the second womb.
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