Surgeons to separate legs of ‘baby mermaid’

PERUVIAN surgeons have performed a preliminary operation to separate the fused legs of a nine-month-old girl known as the “baby mermaid” because of her rare birth defect.

Dr Luis Rubio said his team inserted three silicone bags into the tight coating of skin around Milagros Cerron’s legs on Tuesday. The bags at the baby’s ankles, knees and thighs will be filled with saline solution every three days to stretch the skin.

Rubio said the baby would be ready for the complicated surgery to separate her legs in 40 to 45 days.

Milagros was born with a rare congenital defect known as sirenomelia, or “mermaid syndrome”, which occurs in one out of every 70,000 births. There are only three known cases of children with the affliction alive in the world today.

The deformity is almost always fatal within days of delivery because of complications due to serious defects to the vital organs. But Milagros - whose name means ”miracles” in Spanish - has a healthy heart and lungs and fared well during the initial operation, doctors said.

“The child went through nearly three-and-a-half hours of general anaesthesia to place these skin expanders,” Rubio said, adding that the operation was a good indicator of how Milagros would withstand the more difficult surgery ahead.