Little mermaid Milagros to have major surgery

May 31 2005

Little Peruvian baby girl Milagros who celebrated her first birthday a month ago has been nicknamed the "little mermaid" because her legs resemble the tail of a fish.

One-year-old Milagros Cerron is to have major surgery to begin the separation of her legs, which were fused together as a result of a rare birth defect.

Babies with the condition usually die within days of birth and Milagros is one of only three known survivors.

Most sirenomelia sufferers have severe organ damage and die within hours.

The surgery has been delayed for three months because of recurring urinary infections and a low red blood count.

The medical team, led by surgeon Luis Rubio, includes trauma surgeons, plastic surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons, neurologists, gynaecologists and a paediatrician, and the operation is expected to last at least four hours. They will operate on the little girl on Tuesday in a hospital in Lima.

Dr Rubio says that the conditions are ripe to do the first operation.

Milagros will need 15 years of surgery to correct the condition, and reconstruct and repair internal organs.

The only known long term survivor is 16-year-old American Tiffany Yorks, whose legs were separated before she was one year old.

Milagros, whose name means miracles in Spanish, is relatively unharmed, her abdomen merges into her legs, which are connected by skin down to the feet, which are splayed in a V-shape, but she has normal bone structure and independent movement within the two joined legs.

She has one good kidney, but only a single channel for her digestive tract and genitals. The one-year-old has already had silicone bags filled with saline solution inserted to stretch the skin, in order to cover her legs once they are separated.

She will need, later on, operations to correct her rudimentary digestive channel and genitals.

Milagros who was born in the mountain city of Huancayo, 200km (125 miles) east of Lima, is from a very poor family.