Sirenomelia

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Image:Sirenomelia preparate.jpg Image:Sirenomelia.jpg Sirenomelia or Mermaid Syndrome is a very rare disorder in which the legs are fused together, giving the appearance of a mermaid. This condition is found in approximately one out of every 100,000 live births<ref name="Kallen">Kallen B, Castilla EE, Lancaster PA, Mutchinick O, Knudsen LB, Martinez-Frias ML, Mastroiacovo P, Robert E (1992). "The cyclops and the mermaid: an epidemiological study of two types of rare malformation". J Med Genet 29 (1): 30-5. PMID 1552541.</ref> (about as rare as conjoined twins) and is usually fatal within a day or two of birth because of complications associated with abnormal kidney and bladder development and function. It results from a failure of normal vascular supply from the lower aorta in utero. Sirenomelia is associated with maternal diabetes.^{[citation needed]}

Only a handful of patients who did not have the usual kidney and bladder complications have survived this condition, two of them being Tiffany Yorks of the United States and Milagros Cerrón of Peru. Tiffany Yorks (born 1988) underwent successful surgery to correct her rare congenital defect, in order to separate her legs. She and Milagros Cerrón (her name meaning "miracle" in Spanish) are the only two successful operations at this time. Yorks's surgeon, Mutaz Habal, worked in an advisory capacity during Cerrón's operation.