Extremely rare birth defects

Birth defects like the Mermaid syndrome, a deformity where the legs are fused together, Craniopagus, a phenomenon where twins are joined at the head, and Dicephalic parapagus, a condition of having two heads, occur rarely but prove challenging to the medical world.From Pakistan to Brazil to more recently India- conjoined twins radhana and Stuti will be operated in the same hospital they were born and abandoned by their parents.

The abandoned baby boy with the rare "mermaid syndrome", a defect in which the legs are born fused together, at the Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital in Changsha, central China's Hunan province 16 November 2006. Sirenomelia, or "mermaid syndrome", is a rare congenital defect occurring in one out of every 70,000 births, and the condition is almost always fatal within days of delivery due to serious defects in vital organs. less

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Fri 23 Dec, 2011 1:50 PM IST