Our unusual story takes place in western India, in the city of Nagpur and involves an 18-year-old boy with a most unique physical deformity.

For years, he kept his odd appendage secret, and his parents told him to hide it from others. His mother and father also told young Maharashtra that the unique feature on his backside was actually a good luck charm and to never have it removed.

Maharashtra was an obedient young boy and told no one and showed no one his deformity.

When he turned 18, however, he was now an adult man and could choose to make his own decisions in life. That’s when the handsome Maharashtra took action, seeking the advice from the medical world. He was starting to develop significant pain, because the special appendage was growing longer each year.

For his entire young life, Maharashtra had been living with a tail he was born with, but it only began growing at age 14. The pain was affecting his lower back, especially when he was lying down to sleep or sitting up. He sought the skills and knowledge from Dr. Pramod Giri, head of the neurosurgery department at Super Specialty Hospital in Nagpur.

Dr. Giri knew exactly how to fix the problem and told the media that Maharashtra was developing a social complex, because he had to constantly adjust his clothing to conceal the growing tail. According to Dr Giri, the tail had been attached to the teen’s spinal cord in the lumbosacral region.

The good news is that the tail did not contain any muscle or bone, so the 8-inch abnormality could be removed a lot easier with all the necessary caution. If he hadn’t given the green light to the surgeon to proceed, who knows how long and even cumbersome the appendage could have grown into.

tail-india

Most people are unaware, that during the 5th to 6th week of intrauterine life, the human embryo actually has a tail with 10–12 vertebrae. By 8 weeks, the human tail disappears.

In some very rare instances, the embryonic tail becomes a human tail at birth, and this strange condition occurs twice as often in males as in females. Maharashtra has since had the surgery at the Super Specialty Hospital, and doctors did not find any malignant tissue.

The patient is now healing rather nicely, and now when Maharashtra falls asleep on his back, there is no pain coming from his spinal region. He is thrilled to be getting on with his life like other normal teens and looks ahead to his future.

Maharashtra is said to be very happy he made his own adult decision in having the abnormal growth finally removed from his body and psychologically from his brain.

Like most young adults found worldwide, teens just want to fit in and not have people staring at them for any imperfection, no matter how minor. This is a great story with a happy ending.

To see Maharashtra’s tail, check out this YouTube video.