Peru's 'Little Mermaid' stable after legs separated

LIMA, Peru, Thursday (Reuters) A Peruvian baby girl known as the "Little Mermaid" is able to wriggle her two legs after her fused limbs were surgically separated in what local doctors said was the second such operation worldwide.

Thirteen-month-old Milagros Cerron was born with a rare defect called Mermaid syndrome, or sirenomelia, which often kills sufferers within a few hours of birth. Doctors hope the girl, whose name means "miracles" in Spanish, will be able to walk by her second birthday.

"Fifteen hours after surgery ended ... her vital signs are stable and she's awake," said Dr. Luis Rubio, the surgeon who led an 11-member team during the overnight operation. The chubby-faced girl is responding well to pain killers and antibiotics, Rubio said.

"Her spirits are very high, her crying is energetic, her breathing is good and there is nothing now that could be fatal," he told reporters at Lima's Solidarity Hospital.

Milagros will be in intensive care for three more days. She will need another operation in five or six months to reconstruct her groin area, and several more surgeries by the time she is a teenager, Rubio said.

A 16-year-old American who had surgery to separate her legs when she was a few months old says she believes she is the world's only survivor of Mermaid syndrome. Her doctor, who helped pioneer the procedure, described it as hugely risky.

Before the four-hour operation, Milagros' legs moved separately but were trapped in a sack of tissue and fat down to her heels.

Her feet were splayed in a "V," completing the look of a mermaid's tail. "Our dream is that she will be walking by the time she is two years old," said Rubio, who took on Milagros' case when she was two days old.