Baby diagnosed with ‘mermaid syndrome’ dies 12 hours after birth

AMMAN — A baby diagnosed with sirenomelia (mermaid syndrome) was born in Irbid’s Princess Badiya Hospital on Tuesday and died 12 hours later, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted hospital Director Abdullah Shorman as saying.

Doctors could not identify the sex of the newborn because of the syndrome, Shorman said, noting that the baby’s legs were joined together from the waist in a mermaid-like shape.

Sirenomelia, he added, is a rare syndrome that affects one out of 70,000 newborns in the world, Petra reported. Babies who suffer from sirenomelia live only 10 to 15 days, Petra reported.