Chinese Boy With 15 Fingers, 16 Toes Undergoes Surgery To Remove Extra Digits

Surgeons in China on Wednesday removed extra fingers and toes from a six-year-old boy from the town of Harbin.

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The young child, suffering from a genetic disorder called central polydactyl had a total of 31 digits (15 fingers and 16 toes) prior to the operation.

Doctors from the Shengjing Hospital in Shenyang, Liaoning province took six-and-a-half hours to remove the boy’s extra digits.

The unnamed boy is regarded as the world record holder for having the most number of fingers and toes.

There wasn't much to this article as far as reporting goes. None the less, I can't help but wonder had they left him in his recent condition, how well of a swimmer he would have been?

wow.. thats nuts!

I wonder if he could wiggle all those toes?

If it were me, i would fix the hands, and keep the toes. That would create some trippy foot prints.

I hope his surgery goes well!



[edit on 20-5-2010 by gandhi]

When I was a kid, we used to visit my Grandpa's farm in Montana, which was relatively isolated up a valley between two mountains. Most of the cats on his farm had extra toes -- one of them with seven toes on one foot -- as a result of inbreeding. The interesting part is that the extra toes actually make them much more effective at hunting mice and other small game in the snow. They had built-in snow shoes.

A little bit of evolution at work, eh?

I'm surprised this surgery wasn't done sooner, why wait 6 years? Poor kid had to live like this for 6 long years, he's probably been teased and such.

He can probably climb trees and swim like nobody's business.

If he embraced his bonus features, the teasing wouldn't be so bad.

Also, I only count 14 fingers including the thumbs.

reply to post by Tharsis


If I were to make an educated guess I would say that one of the fingers within the mass of fingers in the middle of one of his hands is not completely exposed however the bone is still there. Not sure which hand but to give you an idea, the white lines indicating the unexposed finger:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/92fe4481b560.jpg[/atsimg]

Just a guess

[edit on 5/20/2010 by UberL33t]

Why not keep it as a gift from god.

I guess I just don't understand why its not ok to "be yourself" if your a little different.

...And so you see.... Food additives really are helping to re-create the

Nephlim race!! (Haw!)

well seperating the fingers would help im sure but why cut anything off the fingers and toes look fully form and usable let him keep it youl never forget a hand shake from him no dought a grip of iron
and as i said the toes look totaLY NORMAIL

That's incredible! And yeah, the toes really don't look bad at all, other than that there are rather a lot of them :p The three finger 'blocks' he has on both hands would be very difficult to live with, but if they can be separated without being removed, you'd think he could learn to use them with great effect. If it were me, I'd at least give it a try, though I can appreciate the parents probably want him to have a normal life. Though, the other side of that is many of the devices and tools we have are designed for a five finger hand, not six or seven, and the child might have great difficulty in some areas because of that.

Strange, I just noticed that he has no big toe.

It must be nice to have never stubbed your big toe really bad.

Not trying to make fun, but I'd make light of the situation if he was my friend. Just like I'd hope he do for me...