Baby In India Born With A Rare Condition: Sirenomelia or "Mermaid" Syndrome

Mermaids are mythical creatures that appear in folklore of many other countries. They are known as legendary acquatic creature that has an upper human, and lower fish tail attributes. 

Though there are still no exact evidence they truly exist, there is this one rare condition in newborns that is somewhat similar to that of a mermaid's tail. 

This rare condition is called Sirenomelia or also known as "Mermaid Syndrome."

A 23-year old mother in India indentified as Muskura Bibi, stunned doctors when she gave birth to a "mermaid" baby.

Though it is not actually a mermaid that has fish scales and fins, its lower limbs however, are somewhat similar to the legendary creature's tail. The baby's limbs are joined together forming a tail-like appearance.

The baby suffered from the rare condition known as sirenomelia, a rare congenital abnormality where the legs are fused together giving them the appearance of a mermaid's tail.

The mother who worked only as a laborer could not afford any scans and medical check up during her pregnancy and therefore only learned about the baby's condition after birth.

According to a medical expert, the lack of proper nutrition and improper blood circulation to the baby from the mother can create this kind of abnormality.

The baby's gender was also unidentified. This rare case affects one out of 60,000 to 100,000 births and is extremely fatal due to abnormal kidney and urinary bladder development.

Unfortunately, after a few hours after birth, the baby did not survive due to several complications. 

This was the second case of sirenomelia in India. The first case was in 2016, when a woman named Uttar Pradeash gave birth also to a mermaid baby who only survived for 10 minutes. 

According to a Lindsey Fitzharris, a medical historian from Oxford University told MailOnline that the condition occurs when the umbilical cord fails to form two arteries resulting to insufficient supply of blood to the fetus.

So far, there are no accounts of anyone in the past who survived this condition.

Source: dailymail