Yang Yang: Boy Born With a 6 Inch Tail in China

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in World news May 22, 2016

Yang Yang boy born in China with a 6 inch tail due to a birth defect has finally had it removed.^{[1] The 11-month-old child, boy born with the 15cm long fleshy growth was dubbed Yang Yang by local media. His family nicknamed him ‘little monkey‘ and though they resisted having surgery}^[2]to remove the tail at first – he had the operation this month.

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Yang Yang developed the tail in the womb as a result of a neural tube deformity, according to People’s China Daily. During the first month of life, an embryo grows a structure called the neural tube that will eventually form the spine and nervous system.^[⁹^]

It is thought something went wrong with this process and Yang Yang’s spine didn’t develop properly.^[⁵^] He had holes in the vertebrae in his back, and the membranes that protect the spinal cord poked through one of them, creating what is known as a menigocele, a fleshy growth that looks like a ‘tail’.

Yang Yang’s mother said when she went for her check ups doctors didn’t tell her anything was wrong with her baby boy.^[⁵^]

So when Yang Yang was born via a C-section, in Yibin, a city in south-west China’s, Sichuan Province, she was shocked to see he had a tail.

Yang Yang’s grandmother thought it was a good thing because it meant he might earn a lot of money when he grew up.^[⁸^] His mother, unnamed in reports, said: ‘It wasn’t a big bother in the beginning – I’ d just lift the “tail” when I needed to change his nappies.’

But several months later, Yang Yang started going to the toilet more frequently^[4]and his mother noticed he wasn’t very strong when he kicked – and feared something was wrong. The family were told they would have to wait until he was a little older to have surgery to remove the growth.^[⁴^]

When doctors said he^[6]was old enough for the operation, they went to Southwest Hospital in the neighbouring city of Chongqing to have it removed. Lin Jiangkai, lead physician in Yang Yang’s operation, said the tail was most probably due to the child’s mother not taking enough folic acid supplements during pregnancy.

The tail was removed during a successful surgery, as Mr Jiangkai said^[5]the child could develop problems in his lower limbs if the family had waited any longer. The unique boy resembles Arshid Ali Khan, 13, who was worshipped as a God in Punjab because he was born with a 7 inch (18 cm) tail.^[⁵^]

Locals hailed him a reincarnation of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman – and refer to him as Balaji.^[7]They believed he too was born with a tail due to a neural tube defect known as spina bifida, where the spine doesn’t develop properly.

This also left him in a wheelchair and unable to walk – so last year doctors at Fortis Hospital Mohali in Punjab removed the growth to help him move around better in the future.^[²^]

Source: daily mail

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