14-year-old girl with extra limbs hopes to undergo life-changing surgery

Meet Veronica, a 14-year-old girl from Iligan. She looks like any other 14-year-old except that Veronica has an extra set of arms in her torso. Both have portions of hands that have two fingers — with growing nails at that.

There is an oblong-shaped body part protruding from her abdomen and at the end of it, what looks like a tail. The strange thing about it? The oblong-shaped body part actually has muscles.

Veronica’s navel is bigger than usual and is often red. Sometimes, it would spew out liquid, often accompanied by blood.

These extra body parts actually came from her supposed twin who ceased development during gestation.

According to Veronica’s mother, Nanay Flora, twins really do run in their blood. She wasn’t able to get herself checked while pregnant with Veronica, but she was certain she was carrying twins; she even had a name for both of them.

Unfortunately, Vernica's twin did not fully develop.

It was Veronica’s lola who delivered her, and Lola Arcenia admits she wasn’t sure if she was able to cut the umbilical cord correctly.

Early in Veronica’s life, they were already advised to get the extra appendages out but the family didn’t have funds for such an operation.

And so Veronica continues to carry her twin with her, taking care of it, keeping it clean, and even cutting its nails for it.

According to doctors, what Veronica has is a parasitic twin. It is the twin they thought they lost, but in fact relies on Veronica to keep living and growing.

Doctors have once again advised Veronica to get an operation. But she will be needing financial support to push through with the examinations and the surgery. If you would like to help, below are her mom’s bank details:

LANDBANK ACCOUNT NUMBER: ‎‎0326-3915-81
LANDBANK ACCOUNT NAME: Flora D. Cominguez
BRANCH: Iligan City, Lanao Del Norte

— LA, GMA News