A hospital in the state of Maharashtra, India, reported a strange birth they had just received. Pregnant woman Disksha Kamble (25 years old) gave birth on May 21, in the 8th month of pregnancy. According to Dr. Sanjay Bansode, who participated in the woman’s birth, everyone was completely shocked when the baby was born because the baby looked exactly like a mermaid !
The baby was determined to have “mermaid syndrome”, causing the baby’s legs to fuse and the hip bones to be deformed, making the entire lower body look like a fish tail. The baby also has no genitals, so the gender cannot be determined.
The poor “mermaid” weighed only nearly 1.5 kg and passed away just 15 minutes after being born. Test results showed that the baby had abnormalities in the kidneys and lungs.
The baby’s parents told the press that they felt “broken” by their child’s passing. The couple lost a baby girl three years ago. Ms. Kamble said she only had one prenatal check-up during her pregnancy and did not detect any abnormalities.
“Mermaid syndrome” – “mermaid syndrome” or “sirenomelia”, is said to affect 1/60,000-100,000 births. It is a group of abnormalities that cause part or all of a baby’s legs to fuse together. People with the syndrome often have other problems with the kidneys, digestive system, lungs, and heart.
Most critically ill patients die in infancy due to lung and heart defects. Mild cases, often with only partially fused legs, will be treated with surgical separation.
According to Indian medical records, this is the third “mermaid” born in this country. There may be more cases, but they are mild and the leg fusion is not obvious, not to the point of looking like a mermaid.
In December 2017, a “mermaid” was also born in Kolkata, eastern India, also the child of a poor couple and only lived 4 hours. According to Dr. Sudip Saha, a pediatrician at Chittaranjan Deva Sadan Hospital, where the “mermaid” in Kolkata was born, a nutritionally deprived pregnancy in which the baby does not receive adequate blood supply from the mother can be cause of defects.