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'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.

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