What Is Mermaid Syndrome? Baby Born With Fused Legs Dies 2 Hours After Birth

A baby, who was born in India with a rare congenital condition called the mermaid syndrome, died just two hours after birth.

The baby was born at the Petlaburj Maternity Hospital in the city of Hyderabad, the New Indian Express reported. Doctors at the hospital said the child died due to severe malformations. A senior official at the hospital sad the defects were likely not detected before the birth, which made the case more complex.

In many cases, the defect, whose scientific name is Sirenomelia, can be detected during pregnancy. In 2018, a Texas couple was told their baby wouldn’t survive the pregnancy due to the rare condition it developed. However, the couple went through the pregnancy and gave birth to the girl in 2019, NBC-affiliated KCBD reported at the time.

“We found out about her Sirenomelia at 12 weeks, at our first sonogram actually, and they said it’s a fatal condition. Babies don’t survive it,” Noelle Spivey, the mother of the girl, said.

When the girl was a year old, Spivey planned a surgery to separate her legs.

“Upper half is perfectly normal. Her lower half, she does have a horseshoe kidney. Also, all of her muscles, bones, everything is backwards,” Spivey told local media.

Sirenomelia is an extremely rare congenital developmental disorder, in which the lower spine and limbs are fused to one another.

According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), other malformations may also occur including genitourinary and gastrointestinal abnormalities along with absence or underdevelopment of one or both kidneys. The exact cause of Sirenomelia is unknown. The disorder is estimated to occur in approximately 1 in 60,000 to 100,000 births.

In another case, a girl in Peru was born with the condition, and survived until she was 15 years old. She died in 2019 while waiting for a kidney transplant, her family said at the time. While many predicted the girl would not survive, Milagros Cerron beat the incredible odds and even managed to walk after several surgeries to separate her legs, according to Fox 2.