Woman Born with 32 Fingers & Toes Branded Witch: Fact Check

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Woman Born with 32 Fingers and Toes Branded Witch in Odisha

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Woman born with 12 fingers, 20 toes in India

Fact Check:

Picture messages doing rounds online purport to show a Woman Born with 32 Fingers and Toes Branded Witch in Odisha, India. Accompanying pictures show the woman having 12 fingers and 20 toes. Yes, the claims are true and explained here.

Woman Born with 32 Fingers & Toes

The woman in pictures is 63-year-old Nayak Kumari born with 20 toes and 12 fingers in Kadapada village of Ganjam district in Odisha, India. Unfortunately, people in her community call her witch and abuse her for being born with so many unnatural number of fingers. The woman’s family did not have the knowledge about her rare medical condition Polydactyly, i.e. supernumerary fingers and/or toes. Polydactyly is often treated by surgically removing the surplus fingers. Their financial status also did not allow conducting further tests or treatment.

Local people treated her congenital abnormality like a social stigma. They were often isolated, considered inauspicious and forced to stay indoors without proper feeding.

The old woman expresses her grief saying there’s no change in people’s thinking even after so many years. Nayak Kumari says people still isolate and harass her mentally. She also says the only people who come near her are those who want to count her fingers.

Similar Polydactylism Case of Guinness World Record

Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes – seven on each hand and 10 on each foot – when he was born in India in March 2010. The premature baby from Panwari town of Budaun City in Uttar Pradesh, India made it into Guinness World Records for having most fingers and toes (Polydactylism) at birth. However, in June 2011, doctors at All India Institute of Medical Sciences amputated the excess fingers in a series of surgeries. Later, Akshat Saxena had the typical five fingers per limb.

Another Indian man from Himmatnagar in Gujarat, Devendra Suthar has 28 fingers – seven each on hands and toes. He is known as ‘maximum fingers man’ in his locality and was also mentioned in Guinness Book of World Records. Devendra Suthar works as a Carpenter and says he has to be careful at work not to slice his extra fingers off.

Hoax or Fact:

Fact.

References:

Woman born with 20 toes 12 fingers branded a witch forced to stay indoors

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