KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Shiloh Pepin, the girl whose story touched the nation, died Friday at Maine Medical Center. She was 10 years old. Known as Kennebunkport's "mermaid girl," Shiloh was one of only three people in the world living with sirenomelia, or Mermaid syndrome.
A five-year-old girl born with "mermaid syndrome" has taken her first steps after surgery to separate her legs. Blaire Spivey was born with sirenomelia – a rare congenital foetal anomaly which meant her legs were rotated backwards from the knee and fused at her feet.
She was 10. Doctors had predicted she would only survive only for days after her birth at the most, but the girl, described by her mother as "a tough little thing," died at Maine Medical Center on Friday afternoon, hospital spokesman John Lamb said.
Mermaid syndrome (sirenomelia) is a very rare congenital anomaly that is born with an evolutionary defect in the caudal region with varying degrees of leg adhesion, causing a complete absence of the lower limb with a very similar appearance to the perianal.
Sirenomelia is associated with severe life-threatening complications and is often fatal in the first years of life. However, survival beyond infancy into later childhood or young adulthood has been reported in a handful of cases.
Tiffany Yorks
She was the longest-surviving sirenomelia patient to date. She had mobility issues due to her fragile leg bones and compensated by using crutches or a wheelchair. She died on February 24, 2016, at the age of 27.
She was born with only one partially working kidney, no lower colon or genital organs and legs fused from the waist down. Her parents, Leslie and Elmer Pepin, were told their daughter would live only days. But Shiloh defied the odds. She received her first kidney transplant at age 2.
Harper Gray has sirenomelia, also known as mermaid syndrome. Her legs were fused when she was born. Her journey did not start with an immediate separation of her legs. That would come almost a year after she was born.
In Disney's 1989 animated adaptation of The Little Mermaid, Ariel is 16 years old. The Disney adaptation makes many changes to Hans Christian Andersen's original fairytale, but Ariel's age is consistent as she's depicted as a teenager in the original tale too.
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Although traditions about and sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts. The male and the female collectively are sometimes referred to as merfolk or merpeople.
Luna is a strong and curious mermaid who was raised in the cool deep waters of the Norwegian Sea! She loves watching ships leave their ports and swimming with pods of pilot whales before they swim south.
At the end of the film, after King Triton uses his magical trident to transform Ariel into a human, she leaves the sea to live in the human world. She and Eric marry and live happily ever after.
However, Ariel longs to go to the land which her father, King Triton, does not approve of. Ariel's curiosity about the human world gets the best of her, leading her to a boat that is celebrating the birthday of Prince Eric. There, Ariel instantly falls for the Prince and ends up saving his life from a storm.
She then exchanges her voice with a sea witch for the opportunity to become human, and though the sea witch nearly ruins everything, ultimately, the mermaid gets her happily ever after.
A mermaid is a mythical sea-dwelling creature, often described as having the head and body of a woman and a fish's tail below the waist.
The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean. The witch willingly helps her by selling her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her voice (her tongue), as the Little Mermaid has the most enchanting voice in the entire world.
Elizabeth also heals Elle in the water, and tells that when she is feeling sick, all she needs is a swim. Elizabeth then returns to her family. The grandmother is revealed to be Elle, and after the story she feels a bit sick and goes for a swim, and her granddaughters see her transforming into a mermaid.
Recalling Shiloh telling friends he was "wicked funny," her dad, Elmer Pepin, said he will be forever grateful for the time he had with her.
As Singapore's best loved and most publicized mermaid, Syrena first made a name for herself performing at Singapore's events and parties.
Tiffany's mom, Linda Yorks, is unable to care for her daughter. Yorks never married Tiffany's father, but he visits the child occasionally.
Risk factors
the mother being younger than 20 years. genetic factors. being male, as the condition is 2.7 times more likely to affect males than females. being an identical twin — of the 300 examples of mermaid syndrome that medical journals have reported, 15% are twins — mostly identical.
Regular antenatal checkup with optimum maternal blood glucose level in preconceptional period and in first trimester should be maintained to prevent this anomaly.