The Boy With Twelve Fingers

When my oldest son was born on my thirtieth birthday, the first thing my wife asked the doctor was "How many fingers and toes does he have?". He chuckled and thinking he was just humoring my wife, he started counting. "Six, six, . . six, and . . . . . six" the doctor said with a frown. My wife just smiled and took our son in her arms.

PolyDactyl / SynDactyl / PolySynDactyl

Definitions:

PolyDactyl: Extra digits (fingers and/or toes).
SynDactyl: Fusion of the fingers and/or toes.
PolySynDactyl: Extra fingers and/or toes with some or complete fusion.

Our son was born with an inherited genetic condition known as polydactyly and polysyndactyly. He was perfectly healthy and normal in every other way. He just had twelve fingers and twelve toes.

His left hand had six perfect fingers and left foot had six perfect toes without any sign of fusion.

The fourth and fifth fingers on his right hand were fused. They looked like a fat finger with two fingernails. The fifth toe on his left foot was a little on the small side but was not fused with the fourth toe.

When our son was one year old, he had an operation to remove the extra fingers and toes at the same time. When the surgeon was done, he had casts up to his shoulders and knees. We were concerned about the length of time it would take to recover and how long he would be in pain. Our fears were dispelled two days later as he ran down the hall at our home, swinging his arms wildly and laughing.

X-Ray pictures to follow. . .

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