Doctors have never seen anything like it: a boy with a heart-shaped thumb was born in the United States. Photo

A unique boy with a heart-shaped thumb was born in Ohio, USA. The young mother was very excited when she saw the baby's peculiarity, and the doctors in the hospital assured her that they had never seen anything like it.

Sarah Wilson, the mother of a unique child, told Newsweek about this. She said that her son was born by cesarean section at 36 weeks and six days. When doctors examined the newborn, they immediately noticed that he had "two nails on his right thumb," and together they resembled a heart.

"It came as a complete surprise to us, and I could never have imagined that this could happen when I was pregnant with him," Sarah commented on a photo of her son's hand that she posted on social media, garnering tens of thousands of reactions from Internet users.

The doctors explained that in medicine there is a term called "polydactyly". It is used to refer to the fact that a child is born with one or more extra fingers. This congenital anomaly is relatively common.

According to studies, polydactyly occurs on average in 1.6 to 10.7 for every 1000 births and is twice as common in boys as in girls. It is also believed to run in families. However, this was the first case in the Wilson family. Moreover, the baby was born not just with an extra finger, but with a finger with two nails that form a beautiful heart shape.

"The doctors told us that they had never seen an extra appendage in this location. Usually, they can be cut off and die like an umbilical cord, but they told us that they could not do anything at the hospital and we would need to see a specialist... Another pediatrician told me that they were very interested in seeing the X-rays, as this variant of polydactyly is extremely rare," the young mother told reporters.

At the moment, the newborn boy's mother and father are weighing the pros and cons of their son's hand surgery. So far, they see no good reason to intervene but assume that it may become a problem when the child is more conscious.

"We will discuss this with his doctors. Now he can use his arm like everyone else. He is less than a week old and still has so much to grow. If my husband and I see that the thumb is negatively affecting his life, we will consider surgery. There is also a concern that children his age might make fun of him when he grows up, and I wouldn't want that for my child. I just hope that he will accept his difference because he is such a good kid and we love him very much," Sarah summarized.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about how Siamese twins from the United States, Callie and Carter, whom their mother hid from people, look like today. The girls are now 6 years old and go to kindergarten. 

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