EXCLUSIVE Tragic 'mermaid baby' is born with lower body fused together and no genitalia WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT READ MORE: Baby born with condition where legs fuse together in the womb By Emily Joshu Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 20:00 EDT, 24 May 2024 | Updated: 20:00 EDT, 24 May 2024 e-mail View comments A baby in Tanzania was born with its lower body fused together like a 'mermaid' in an ultra rare case WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT A baby in Tanzania was born with its lower body fused together like a 'mermaid' in an ultra rare case. The newborn, who weighed just over 4.
5lbs, was missing one arm and an anal opening and also had ambiguous genitalia, making it difficult to assign a sex. The infant only lived for about five minutes. Doctors made the diagnosis of sirenomelia, or 'mermaid syndrome,' which has only been recorded a handful of times.
The case was noted earlier this month in a US medical journal. Read More Tragic 'mermaid baby' who lived for just 15 minutes: Child born with its legs fused together dies before doctors are able to identify its sex Sirenomelia is almost always fatal , with just one percent of affected infants surviving longer than one week after birth. The doctors treating the baby called the condition 'incompatible' with life due to 'multiple defects in critical systems.
' The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) states that it's unclear what causes sirenomelia, and most cases occur randomly. It's thought that tissues do not prop.
