In medicine, there is an extremely rare disease called mermaid syndrome. The fetus was born with adhesions on the inside of its legs, which looked like a mermaid's tail. Recently, a pregnant woman in Suzhou discovered such a "mermaid baby" during an ultrasound examination.
In early October, a 40-year-old mother of two children came to the Ultrasound Department of the North District of the Municipal Hospital. It was originally just a routine re-examination, but Yuan Zhihong, the doctor on duty that day, discovered something was wrong.
The doctor found that the fetus’s calf bones seemed to be slightly crossed. A normal child's lower limbs should be constantly moving in the mother's belly, showing an outward figure.
The fetus was already three months old. The doctor observed again and again and found that the fetus’s calves had not moved. Although I have more than 20 years of experience in ultrasound, this is the first time I have seen this situation.
The doctor said that the fetus's calves are basically fused, and the surrounding soft tissues seem to be fused as well.
The doctor suspected that this was the legendary extremely rare "mermaid syndrome" and immediately asked the pregnant woman to go to the obstetrics department for confirmation.
After diagnosis, the fetus had multiple malformations, mermaid syndrome, and other malformations.
Mermaid syndrome is an extremely rare congenital lower limb malformation disease, with a prevalence rate of approximately one in 100,000. Most affected newborns can only survive for a few hours after birth. Even if he survived, he would have to undergo multiple surgeries.
In the end, with the help of the hospital, the mother of two children chose to terminate the pregnancy. Doctors say that timely detection of fetal malformations through ultrasound examinations like Ms. Chen's is not only responsible for the fetus, but also to reduce the greater pain of pregnant women in the future.
Pregnancy check-up is really important, otherwise it would be so uncomfortable to give birth to a child like this.