Surgeons ready to help 'Little Mermaid' walk

A PERUVIAN baby girl known as the "Little Mermaid" because of her fused-together legs was last night preparing for 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. However, Dr Luis Rubio said conditions are suitable for the first operation to separate Milagros’s legs to go ahead.

Dr Rubio was due to lead a ten-doctor team in the four-hour operation last night, during which Milagros’s legs would be separated from her heels to almost her knees.

A 16-year-old American girl who had surgery to separate her legs when she was a few months old is believed to be the world’s only survivor of the condition. Dr Rubio took on Milagros’s case when she was two days old and has treated her in a city council-funded hospital.

Milagros’s operation has been postponed for three months because she has needed blood transfusions and recurring urinary infections have slowed her general development.

If the initial procedure is successful, a second operation will be needed to separate her legs completely, Dr Rubio said. The infant 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.

The mayor of Lima is the girl’s godfather and the city is covering the costs of her treatment.