Boy secretly lived with 7-inch tail for 18 years …before having it chopped off

An 18-year-old boy in India secretly lived with a 7-inch tail for his entire life – believed to the longest ever reported.
His parents helped him hide his fleshy tail because they believed it was a good luck charm.
But on September 29, the boy walked into the government hospital Super Specialty Hospital, in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in western India, saying his tail had become painful.
It was successfully removed by surgeons.
The condition is medically called neuro-development abnormality – and it arises from compression at the tail end of the back.
The condition can be medically detected soon after birth and can be operated on – but in this case the family concealed it.
Dr Pramod Giri, the head of the neurosurgery department, at the hospital, said: ‘This is an extremely rare case and we have not seen such an abnormality here before.
‘He was admitted only after he complained of extreme pain in his lower back, problems while sleeping and sitting. The boy was also suffering from an extreme psychological issue because the tail was growing so he had to always adjust the tail in his cloths when sitting.’
‘The family was always aware but they ignored it and did not see a doctor as they were superstitious and considered it to be a good luck charm for the boy.
They hid his condition all these years worrying about the social stigma and also because it was not creating any health issue for him until now.’
‘The surgery is not complex but as it involves some part of the spinal cord we had to be cautious. Fortunately, there was no bone or muscular tissue in his tail, so removing it was not very difficult.’
The boy will be discharged later this week.
‘He is very happy. He is now very comfortable while sleeping and sitting. He says he feels more confident about himself now,’
Culled from metro.co.uk