Man with 12 fingers, 12 toes vs. boy with 34 digits

What do you call it when you have 12 fingers and 12 toes? Yoandri Hernandez Garrido calls it a blessing - and he knows first-hand. The 37-year-old Cuban man, nicknamed "Twenty-Four," has a surprisingly common condition known as polydactyly.

But while 24 might seem like a lot, Hernandez is still ten digits short of the world record holder, a young boy from India. Keep clicking to see more photos of Hernandez and the boy with 34 fingers and toes...

Hernandez's condition is relatively common - polydactyly occurs in about one of every 1,000 births, according to the Children's Hospital Boston. But it's rare for the extra digits to be so perfect. Anyone who glanced quickly at his hands would be hard-pressed to notice anything different unless they paused and started counting, says the Associated Press.

Hernandez is proud of his extra digits. He says they set him apart and enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts - and by posing for photographs in Baracoa, Cuba, a city popular with tourists.

"Since I was young, I understood that it was a privilege to have 24 digits. Nobody has ever discriminated against me for that," Hernandez said. "On the contrary, people admire me and I am very proud. I have a million friends, I live well."

"It's thanks to my 24 digits that I'm able to make a living, because I have no fixed job," Hernandez said.

It's not just through climbing trees and cutting coconuts that Hernandez makes a living. He's quite popular among the crowds. One traveler paid $10 for a picture with him, Hernandez said, a bonanza in a country with an average salary of just $20 a month.

Hernandez said he hopes he can be an example to children with polydactyly that there's nothing wrong with them.

"I think it's what God commanded," he said. "They shouldn't feel bad about anything, because I think it's one of the greatest blessings and they'll be happy in life."

Akshat Saxena was born with 14 fingers and toes in Uttar Pradesh, India in 2010 - setting a new world record for the most surplus digits.

"I was so happy to see my baby as it was our first child," the boy's mother, Amrita Saxena, told New Delhi Television. "But later, when I saw his fingers, I was shocked and surprised."

Saxena had surgery to remove his excess digits and now has ten fingers and ten toes. Large or poorly formed digits like Saxena's are usually removed, while well-formed digits may add to human function (as they do for Hernandez).

Saxena took the world record from a six-year-old Chinese boy who had 15 fingers and 16 toes, the Daily Mail reported.

Polydactyly can occur on its own without any other symptoms or disease. Extra digits can be made up of skin and soft tissue, or can be fully formed fingers or toes.