Mermaid Syndrome! Woman Terminates 6-Month-Old Pregnancy After Scan Report

A young woman has terminated her 6-month-old pregnancy after doctors told her she was carrying a mermaid-like foetus.

The 23-year-old woman only identified as Wu, took the drastic action after a scan at the Health Care Center for Women and Children in Yichang City, in Central China’s Hubei Province.

According to Mirror, scans revealed the unborn had developed a ‘tail-like growth’ but no legs. It also did not have a bladder and had a stunted liver.

Doctors at the hospital told the woman that her unborn baby was suffering from a rare condition known as Sirenomelia, or “Mermaid Syndrome”, a rare congenital deformity in which the legs are fused together, giving them the appearance of a mermaid’s tail.

Specialists also estimated that the baby would only survive for a few hours after birth. Wu subsequently decided to abort the pregnancy.

Shiloh Pepin, an American dubbed “Mermaid Girl”, suffered one of the world’s most well-documented cases of sirenomelia. Despite undergoing 150 operations, Shiloh passed away in 2009 at the age of 10.

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Milagros Cerron, another child born with sirenomelia, later underwent a successful operation to separate her legs

The causes behind Mermaid Syndrome are still a medical mystery and it is said to occur only once in every 100,000 pregnancies. According to reports, there are only two known survivors of Mermaid Syndrome in the world today.

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