No Medicine Myth Rare mermaid syndrome in the baby

Doctors discover multigeneism in fetus, mother stops pregnancy
If you think of mermaids, Ariel the Mermaid comes to mind. However, few people know that a rare congenital defect can lead to a real fusion of the legs. The whole thing then strongly reminds of the tail of a mermaid. A 23-year-old woman from China now decided to end her pregnancy and abort her child because it showed signs of the defect on ultrasound scans.

The expectant mother in China now broke off her pregnancy. Previously, the 23-year-old woman found that her fetus grew a kind of multi-maiden tail instead of legs. The young woman was already six months pregnant when the malformation was discovered. This congenital defect is also known as sirenomelia or mermaid syndrome.

Picture: Nelly Kovalchuk- fotolia

What is the mermaid syndrome?
The so-called multi-viral syndrome is an extremely rare congenital malformation. In this defect, the legs of the affected grow together from the pelvis downwards. The disease is usually associated with a further malformation of the arms and the internal organs. For this reason, affected children are usually not viable. As a rule, affected children are born dead or die soon after birth. There are only very few known cases worldwide, in which the affected persons had a longer survival time.

The fetus had no bladder and a crippled liver
The 23-year-old mother underwent a medical examination in Yichang City, Hubei Province, China. They found that their unborn child was suffering from the so-called multi-viral syndrome. The abdominal ultrasound showed clearly that the fetus did not have two legs but a kind of multi-maiden tail. In addition, the fetus was missing the bladder and he had only a crippled liver, the doctors report, according to the British daily newspaper Mail. Although the mother had been carrying the fetus for half a year, the mother terminated her pregnancy. Physicians had previously estimated that the baby would survive only a few hours after birth.

The cause of so-called sirenomelia is still unknown
The rare type of malformation is more common in twins. The cause of the sporadic malformation is not yet known. The disease is on average in one out of every 100,000 pregnancies. In less severe cases of the disease, the legs can be separated by surgery. Affected people can often lead a normal life afterwards.

American girl with mermaid syndrome became ten years old
The best documented case of sirenomelia involved American girl Shiloh Pepin. Despite 150 operations during her relatively short life, the girl died at the age of just ten, the Daily Mail reports. (As)