PERU: Peru's "Mermaid Baby", who was born with fused legs, celebrated her third birthday with her family and the medical team that has carried out operations to separate her legs

Record ID: 601327

  • Title: PERU: Peru's "Mermaid Baby", who was born with fused legs, celebrated her third birthday with her family and the medical team that has carried out operations to separate her legs
  • Date: 28th April 2007
  • Summary: MILAGROS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Peru
  • Country: Peru
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA1R0IB7F81WV5WPFFRTVAFBWWV
  • Story Text: Peru's "Mermaid Baby", who was born with fused legs, celebrated her third birthday with her family and the medical team that has carried out operations to separate her legs. After three years of surgeries a Peruvian girl who was born with her legs fused together celebrated her third birthday walking happily around among family and friends on Friday (April 27).
    Milagros Cerron was born with a rare birth defect which meant her legs were fused together. She has become known as the "Mermaid Baby".
    On Friday, doctors who operated on Milagros, her parents, her godfather, who is the Mayor of Lima, and nurses attended her party in City Hall.
    Dr. Luis Rubio, who led the medical team that operated on Milagros, said her progress far surpassed expectations.
    Rubio said: "I hope that many of the mermaid children who are born in the world will have this kind of luck. Almost always, the mermaid children who are born die within the first hours because of internal damage. Ours also had internal damage. We are balancing. We are with a medical team that solves the internal problems, that solved the internal problems to see that this little girl survived beyond what was expected."
    The Mayor of Lima, Luis Castaneda Lossio, is the little girl's godfather and organised the funding of her medical treatment.
    The mayor said: "It is moving, but not moving in a sad way, but in the sense of overcoming each day, each moment, each second that carries forward a body and a soul."
    Scientists say only one in 70,000 children are born with the birth defect and most children die within days of birth.
    Milagros, whose name means "miracle" in Spanish, was born to poor villagers. The city of Lima agreed to pay for her medical care.
    So far, she has undergone a series of operations to separate her legs a little at a time. Next, doctors will operate to reconstruct her urinary and sexual organs.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
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