LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A baby girl from the Ivory Coast born with four legs and two spines has been successfully separated from a parasitic twin in a rare and complex surgery at a Chicago hospital. 
 
 Ten-month-old Dominique underwent a six-hour procedure involving five surgeons at the Advocate Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, on March 8. She is now thriving with the Chicago foster family who will look after her until she is well enough to return home, her doctors and foster mother told Reuters on Monday. 
 
 “It’s going rather well. She was only in the hospital a total of five days. She’s been home with ‘step-mom’ and just doing very, very well,” said pediatric and reconstructive surgeon Frank A. Vicari. 
 
 Dominique was born with a parasitic twin. The bottom half of her not-fully-developed twin’s body protruded from her neck and back. 
 
 “A parasitic twin is an identical twin that fails to fully separate in development,” said John R. Ruge, a pediatric neurosurgeon at the hospital. “In other words, not another independent twin, but a twin that was dependent on her body system, such that Dominique’s heart and lungs provided the nourishment.” 
 
 Doctors did not give Dominique’s family name. 
 
 Nancy Swabb, from Edgebrook, Illinois, has looked after Dominique since she arrived in the United States for the surgery. 
 
 “She’s been a joy. We really enjoyed having her in our family,” said Swabb. 
 
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 “We send a lot of photos and updates and so we know that Dominique’s family sees what she’s doing and seeing that she has two new teeth and she’s learning to wave and doing all sorts of special things.” 
 
 Swabb said she did not want to think about saying goodbye to Dominique when she returns to her family in the Ivory Coast. 
 
 “She has touched our hearts. She’s a member of our family,” Swabb said. “She’s pretty amazing.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Surgeons explain the challenges of the complex operation to separate Dominique from her parasitic twin 
 
 A baby girl whose twin failed to develop properly and fused to her growing body in the womb is recovering after a successful operation in the US. 
 
 A team of five surgeons at Advocate Children's Hospital in Chicago removed baby Dominique's parasitic twin. 
 
 In this extremely rare case, her parasitic twin was attached to her back and shoulder. This made her look like she had two extra legs and feet. 
 
 Dominique travelled from Ivory Coast for the operation and will return soon. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters 
 
 Dr John Ruge, who led the surgery, said one of the biggest challenges had been to ensure Dominique was not left paralysed. 
 
 He said: "There was a lot of challenges to her skeletal system... we could destabilise her spine and cause her impairment." 
 
 Another of the surgeons, Frank Vicari, said: "We had an enormous amount of imaging, specialised imaging that would allow us to identify her own native anatomy, the anatomy of the parasitic twin and anticipate the problems we might see... so that we could pre-plan what we intended to do and minimise any opportunity for a surprise during surgery." 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Surgeons used specialised imaging before the operation 
 
 Dr Ruge said the operation had been vital because of the strain on Dominique's heart and lungs of having to "provide nourishment to another almost individual". 
 
 Also, the parasitic twin had been attached at a very important junction between the neck and the thoracic spine and "that amount of mass and disturbance in that area would cause her significant spinal problems as she grew". 
 
 Dominique's foster carer in Chicago Nancy Swabb said: "She has touched our hearts. She is a member of our family. 
 
 "We know that she will go back to her loving family, and we'll keep in touch - but this has changed our lives. She is pretty amazing." ||||| Advocate Children's Hospital surgeons have successfully operated on a baby from Africa born with two spines and an extra set of legs protruding from her neck. 
 
 The Park Ridge hospital announced Tuesday that 10-month-old Dominique from Ivory Coast, or Cote d'Ivoire, in West Africa, is recovering well from the March 8 surgery. The baby already has started sitting up again, and doctors expect she'll be able to live a normal, fully functional life. 
 
 "Her recovery has been amazing," said Nancy Swabb, who is hosting the infant in her Edgebrook neighborhood home during the infant's recovery in the U.S. "Children are so resilient." 
 
 Advocate Children's Hospital surgeons have successfully operated on a baby from Ivory Coast in West Africa who was born with two spines and an extra set of legs protruding from her neck and back. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune) (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune) 
 
 Tuesday's news conference highlighted the rare surgery — the first of its kind performed at Advocate Children's Hospital — while also training a spotlight on a hospital that in the past five years has added about 100 physicians and seeks to boost awareness of its growing capabilities. 
 
 In the Chicago area, many people think of Lurie Children's Hospital in downtown Chicago as the go-to facility for complex pediatric operations. Lurie, for example, has successfully separated three sets of conjoined twins, said Lurie spokeswoman Julie Pesch. 
 
 Lurie also attracts many patients from abroad. Last year, Lurie cared for 247 patients from outside the U.S. 
 
 Advocate Children's Hospital, with campuses in Park Ridge and Oak Lawn, doesn't attract many patients from abroad and may not be as well-known for complex surgeries, said Dr. Robert Kellogg, one of the five surgeons who operated on Dominique. But he said surgeons at Advocate knew they could help Dominique, whose last name was not released, at her parents' request. 
 
 Dominique was born with what's known as a parasitic twin, Kellogg said. The other twin, however, never fully developed. Only the lower half of that twin's body formed, and Dominique was born with that parasitic twin joined to her spine, Kellogg said. 
 
 Her recovery has been amazing. Children are so resilient. — Nancy Swabb, Dominique's American foster mother 
 
 Only a handful of cases like Dominique's, involving a parasitic twin attached at the spine, have ever been documented, he said. 
 
 "It's as if the identical twin sort of dove into her body from the back and the only part sticking out were the hips and legs," said Dr. John Ruge, who was part of the surgical team. Doctors feared if the parasitic twin weren't removed, Dominique could become paralyzed. They also worried that her heart and lungs wouldn't be able to keep up with the demands of supporting another half a body. 
 
 Doctors had to separate bone, blood vessels and nerves during the six-hour surgery, Kellogg said. "It was very complicated because there were all kinds of different connections between Dominique and the twin," he said. They used some of the parasitic twin's muscles to cover Dominique's spine. 
 
 The surgeons removed the parasitic twin's legs, but they left both spines inside Dominique, saying she should be able to live normally with both of them. 
 
 "While it's not something that this hospital has done before, we certainly had the confidence we could plan and perform this surgery and have a good outcome at the end," Kellogg said. "We really do have the capacity to care for these very complicated patients that have a lot of needs." 
 
 Advocate Children's Hospital President Mike Farrell said the surgery showcases the hospital's abilities, which have grown since Advocate Health Care, the state's largest hospital system, committed about six years ago to bolstering the children's hospital's offerings. 
 
 Nancy Swabb of Chicago is caring for 10-month-old Dominique, a baby born with four legs and two spines from the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Dominique underwent a rare surgery at Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Nancy Swabb of Chicago is caring for 10-month-old Dominique, a baby born with four legs and two spines from the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Dominique underwent a rare surgery at Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 Performing a surgery like the one on Dominique helps the hospital continue to grow those capabilities, he said. The hospital performed the surgery for free, as it does in about four to six complex cases a year, Farrell said. The total cost of the surgery has not been calculated, he said. 
 
 Allan Baumgarten, an independent health care financial analyst, said such high-profile surgeries can have long-term benefits for a hospital. 
 
 "Building a record of doing innovative things, including previously sort of unprecedented kinds of surgeries, does contribute to a favorable image, a favorable reputation for a specialty hospital, and can have some positive marketing value going forward," Baumgarten said. 
 
 Lurie CEO Patrick Magoon said in an interview with the Tribune on Tuesday that the breadth and depth of medical talent at Lurie is unmatched in the Chicago area. "If you look at complexity, where you really need an integrated team, what you have (at Lurie) isn't replicated anywhere," Magoon said. 
 
 Dominique came to the hospital via the Ohio-based nonprofit Children's Medical Missions West, which has a relationship with one of the doctors at Advocate Children's Hospital. The organization describes itself as a nonprofit Christian organization that finds free medical care for children who can't necessary get care in their home countries. 
 
 The organization also finds host families, such as the Swabbs, to care for children while they're receiving medical care in the U.S. Nancy Swabb said Dominique arrived in the U.S. in early February. 
 
 Swabb said she volunteered to host Dominique after seeing a Facebook post featuring a photo of the little girl in her mother's lap. Within two weeks of seeing that Facebook post, Dominique and an escort flew from her home in the city of Abidjan to Chicago, where she met Nancy Swabb, her husband and their two daughters, ages 9 and 15. Baby gear, donated by neighbors, awaited her. 
 
 "She took to us immediately," Swabb said. "She was affectionate and sweet, so we knew she must have come from a loving family." 
 
 Dominique likely will head home to her mother, father and three older sisters, who've been getting regular updates on the baby's condition, in mid-April, Swabb said. Dominique's parents weren't able to come due to cost, an Advocate Children's Hospital spokeswoman said. 
 
 lschencker@chicagotribune.com 
 
 Twitter @lschencker
– Many new parents joke about counting fingers and toes when their baby is born, but a mother in the Ivory Coast was confronted with an entire extra pair of legs—and those legs were growing out of her baby girl's spine. The cause is actually straightforward: Baby Dominique (her last name isn't being released) was developing in utero with a twin, but as sometimes happens, she absorbed her twin's body. Well, most of it. The legs, feet, and spine of the so-called "parasitic twin" who required Dominique's organs to survive fused to Dominique's spine. They would eventually not only prove cumbersome but also tax her heart and shorten her life, reports the BBC. "That amount of mass and disturbance in that area would cause her significant spinal problems as she grew," one surgeon said. Five surgeons spent six hours using an "enormous" amount of specialized imaging to remove the twin's anatomy (including bones, blood vessels, and nerves, reports the Chicago Tribune) from Dominique's spine—a risky operation that could have resulted in paralysis. The team at Advocate Children's Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., tells Reuters the operation was a success and that the 10-month-old is thriving at her Chicago area foster home. "She has touched our hearts," her foster mother Nancy Swabb said, holding back tears as she called the "amazing" girl "resilient." Dominique will be reunited with her parents and three older sisters, who are regularly updated with photos and stories, as soon as she can travel. The Ohio-based nonprofit Children's Medical Missions West sponsored her trip. (This infant in Iran was granted a waiver to have life-saving surgery in Oregon.)