|
'Little Mermaid' on eve of risky surgery
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-31 10:12
Peruvian one-year-old baby Milagros Cerron is
seen at a hospital in Lima May 30, 2005. Milagros, who has been dubbed the
"Little Mermaid" because of a rare birth defect in which her legs are
joined together, will be operated on to separate her legs on Tuesday.
[Reuters]
Doctor Luis Rubio (back) speaks to media as he
holds one-year-old Peruvian baby Milagros Cerron at a hospital in Lima May
30, 2005. The baby, dubbed the "Little Mermaid" because of a rare birth
defect in which her legs are joined together, will be operated on to
separate her legs on Tuesday. [Reuters]
Doctor Luis Rubio holds the fused legs of
one-year-old Peruvian baby Milagros Cerron in a hospital in Lima May 30,
2005. The baby, dubbed the 'Little Mermaid' because of her rare birth
defect, will be operated on to separate her legs on Tuesday.
[Reuters] |
A Peruvian baby girl known as the "Little Mermaid" because of
her fused-together legs is just hours away from a very risky separation surgery
that could eventually enable her to walk.
Thirteen-month-old Milagros
Cerron has a rare birth defect called Mermaid syndrome, or sirenomelia, which
usually kills sufferers within a few hours of birth.
A 16-year-old American who had surgery to separate her legs when
she was a few months old says she believes she is the world's only survivor.
"Conditions are ripe to do the first operation" to separate
Milagros' legs from her heels to nearly her knees, Dr. Luis Rubio said on
Monday.
A 10-doctor team led by Rubio will perform the four-hour surgery
on Tuesday night. The doctor took on Milagros' case when she was two days old
and has treated her in a City Hall-funded hospital run out of old buses.
Milagros' operation has been postponed for three months due to
recurring urinary infections that have slowed the girl's general development and
because she has needed blood transfusions.
A second operation would be needed to separate her legs up to her
waist, the doctor said.
The smiling baby girl has legs that move separately but are
trapped in a "sack" of tissue and fat down to her heels. Her feet are splayed in
a "V," completing the look of a mermaid's tail.
Milagros has one good kidney and her heart and lungs are fine. Her
rudimentary anus, urethra and genitalia are all located together but genital
reconstruction will probably wait until adolescence.
The mayor of Lima is the girl's godfather and the city is covering
the costs of her treatment.
|
