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Two-year-old Lakshmi was born with one of the world's rarest physical abnormalities. Joined at the pelvis to her half-formed conjoined twin, she has four arms and four legs. In her remote Indian village she is revered as a living god. With exclusive access, this film follows Laksmi's family on an epic emotional journey from their rural home to a hospital in Bangalore where her parents must decide whether to proceed with potentially life-threatening surgery to remove her extra limbs.

Bihar, near the Indian border with Nepal, is one of the poorest places in the world. It is not uncommon for babies born with physical defects to be left in the fields to perish. However, when this child was born, her physical similarity to Lakshmi, the sacred four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, meant the villagers believed her to be the reincarnation of their beloved deity. People would come from miles around to gaze at the child, always under the careful protection of her parents, believing her to be a blessing from god.

Lakshmi's condition is so rare that only a small number of similar cases have ever been recorded. So when the Bangalore-based paediatric orthopaedic surgeon Dr Sharan Patil heard about her, he decided to make the three-day journey to her village to offer his help. After examining the child, he strongly believes that if Lakshmi is to have any decent quality of life as she grows up, then an operation is imperative. He invites the family to accompany him to Bangalore for further tests.

Lakshmi's parents know their daughter cannot live a normal life if the operation does not go ahead and accept the doctor's offer, but the decision to travel to Bangalore is a momentous one for them and the rest of the village.

'What mustn't happen is that Lakshmi is taken away and sold to a circus,' says the village leader. 'She could have been exhibited like a freak here and earned us a fortune but we never wanted to do that and neither did the parents.'

Once in Bangalore, the family are made aware of all potential risks. With the possibility that Lakshmi could die during the operation, the family face a terrible decision – do they risk their daughter's life and proceed with the operation or defer to their traditional religious beliefs and embrace her divine-like status. It doesn't take them long to reach a decision.

'We haven't come all this way to give up now, 'says her mother, 'now we're here we'll stay for an operation no matter how long it takes.'

By now Lakshmi has become a global story and the world's media gather around the hospital hungry for news. The operation takes almost twenty hours to complete. The wait is agonising for her parents but the procedure is a complete success.

Still in the media spotlight, the family decide not to return to their village but accept a place at a charitable school for physically disabled children in another part of India.

For Lakshmi and her family it is a new beginning. The school removes her from the public gaze and provides the care she needs to continue her recuperation. Lakshmi will need another smaller operation in the future but doctors are hopeful that, one day, she will be able to walk. For her parents, Lakshmi will always be a special child. 'For as long as she is alive, until my dying day,' says her father,' I will believe she is the goddess.'

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