Doctors Begin to Separate 'Mermaid' Baby's Legs

[Placebo]

Doctors have successfully taken the first step toward separating the fused legs of Milagros Cerron, a 9-month-old Peruvian baby dubbed the "Little Mermaid" because of her rare birth defect, her parents said on Wednesday. "Everything went well, but it's a tough time. Her mother is crying, we're crying," her father Ricardo Cerron, 24, told Reuters after Tuesday's operation to begin correcting the condition, which is nearly always fatal.

Milagros -- whose name means "miracles" in Spanish -- was born with "mermaid syndrome," or sirenomelia, a condition affecting 1-in-60,000 to 1-in-100,000 people. Only a handful of patients have survived more than a few hours and there are few precedents for the risky separation surgery.

Milagros, who weighs 17 lbs and is 24 inches long, has a healthy heart and one good kidney but the other is tiny, said Luis Rubio, the doctor leading the team which plans to cut her legs apart next month.

Although Milagros' legs are joined seamlessly from her abdomen to her heels -- with her tiny feet splayed in a "V" completing the resemblance to a mermaid's tail -- her legs have separate bones, cartilage and blood supplies, and can be seen to move independently inside their "sack" of fat and tissue.

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[Book Lover]

1. I don't pray but this little person

is getting my best thoughts and wishes. Good luck, Milagros!

[clydefrand]

2. I read about this child earlier in the week. Who can tell me how

she urinates and defecates? There certainly must be a way, but the description above "legs are joined seamlessly from her abdomen to her heels" indicates otherwise.

[arcos]

3. Apparently she is able to...

" She has a rudimentary anus, urethra and genitalia, all located together, Rubio said. Genital reconstruction will probably wait until adolescence, he said.
...
"We know we'll be treating (Milagros) for the next 18 years," he said.

In mid-March, at least 10 specialists working "centimeter by centimeter" will cut her legs apart as far as her lower thigh. Another operation expected three months later will divide them as far as her pelvis. "

[knowbody0]

4. my question, thanks for asking

what a sweet child.