Milagros Cerron Arauco (born April 27 2004 in Huancayo, Peru) is a child born with sirenomelia, or "mermaid syndrome", a congenital disorder in which the legs are fused together. The condition occurs in one out of every 100,000 births and there are only three known cases of children with the affliction alive in the world today. The deformity is almost always fatal within days of delivery due to serious defects to the vital organs.

Although most of Milagros’ internal organs, including her heart and lungs, are in perfect condition, she was born with serious internal defects, including a deformed left kidney and a very small right one located very low in her body. In addition, her digestive and urinary tracts and her genitals share a single tube.

Sirenomelia is usually fatal because of complications associated with abnormal kidney and bladder development and function. However, Milagros’ doctors have managed to stave off kidney and bladder infections, allowing her to continue to gain weight and grow. To prepare for the surgery, Dr. Luis Rubio, head of the team of surgeons who operated on her, studied the case of Tiffany Yorks, an 18-year-old American girl born with sirenomelia whose legs were successfully separated when she was a baby. Rubio said Yorks’ surgeon, Mutaz Habal, has provided invaluable advice to the Peruvian doctors.

A four-hour operation to insert silicone bags between her legs to stretch the skin was successfully completed on February 8 2005. A successful operation to separate her legs to just above the knee took place May 31, 2005 in a "Solidarity Hospital" in the district of Surquillo in Lima. The procedure, however, was so intensive that she became traumatised to the degree of losing her ability to form proper speech patterns, leaving her nearly mute. As yet it is not known if this is a physiological, or simply psychological condition. However, at Milagros's second birthday, her mother reported that she knew more than 50 words. A second operation to complete the separation up to the groin took place on September 7 2006.

Later in her life, she will require genital reconstruction surgery to replace her rudimentary anus, urethra and genitalia.

In December 2005, Dr. Rubio said he was pleased with the progress Milagros had made, but cautioned that she still needed 10 to 15 years of rehabilitation and more operations before she could lead a normal life.

Milagros' parents are from a poor village in Peru's Andes Mountains; the Solidarity Hospital has given a job to her father Ricardo Cerron so that the family can remain in Lima, while the City of Lima has pledged to pay for many of the operations.'Mermaid' girl takes first steps - BBC

References

External links

BBC News 2006-09-26 'Mermaid' girl takes first steps
Canadian Press 2006-04-27 Peru miracle baby marks 2nd birthday with steps after surgery to separate legs
Associated Press 2005-02-08 Peru's 'mermaid' girl set for surgery
Associated Press 2007-04-20 Peru's 'miracle baby' walks on her own
Peruvian-people

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Milagros_Cerron