Boy Born With 24 Fingers and Toes Has Them Successfully Removed

A young boy born with six fingers and toes on both hands and feet has undergone surgery to correct his condition.

Gabe Park was born with 24 digits in total. The 7-year-old had inherited the polydactyly condition from his father, Kevin, who also had the same number of extra fingers and toes in the same position.

Gabe had undergone major surgical operations when he was a baby to remove his extra fingers, which were located between his thumb and first finder and between his big toe and second toe.

While he can now walk and use his hands, the condition made his feet a lot wider than average, making it hard for his mother Julie, 40, to find him shoes that fit him.

Gabe, who loves sports, has been fitted with pricey prescription shoes and regularly attends hospital appointments to have his feet measured.

Doctors told Julie that her son might have to undergo more surgery because his big toes are growing out from his feet rather than straight.

Gabe had undergone his first operation to remove the extra finger from his left hand in February 2006 and again on his right hand in July 2006.

Doctors then operated on both his legs in October 2007. After the operation, Gabe had spent a month with his legs bandaged as he recovered. Doctors said that without the surgery, Gabe's mobility could have been impaired because his extra toes could mess up his balance.

"The operations were partly for aesthetic reasons but doctors said the toes could grow over each other like when you cross your fingers and that could cause major problems," Julie said.

Julie said that she met her husband, Kevin, in Kosovo in 2002 when she was working for the UN as an IT network administrator. She said that Kevin had told her that when he was a child he had surgery to remove his extra fingers and toes.

"When I became pregnant I knew my children could have with the same condition because it was genetic," Julie said, according to Daily Mail. "When Gabe was born and we saw he was just like his dad, it made him even more special."

Gabe's condition affects about five babies in every 10,000. If both parents have it, there is a 50 percent chance their children will be affected, but the condition may also occur randomly out of the blue.