Το σύνδρομο της Γοργόνας: Η σπάνια και θανατηφόρα πάθηση που κάνει τα νεογέννητα να μοιάζουν με τα θαλάσσια πλάσματα των Μύθων

Pic shows: A scan of the foetus in Wu¿s wombnnA young mother has decided to terminate her pregnancy after finding out that she was carrying a mermaid-like foetus in her womb.nnThe mum, 23-year-old Wu, was 6 months pregnant when she went to a be examined at the Health Care Center for Women and Children in Yichang City, in Central China¿s Hubei Province, and the results left the doctors shocked.nnWu¿s scans showed that her unborn child did not have any legs, but instead had a "tail" like growth.nnThe foetus also did not have a bladder and had a stunted liver, reports said.nnDoctors at the hospital told Wu that the foetus was suffering from a rare condition known as sirenomelia, or "Mermaid Syndrome", a rare congenital deformity in which the legs are fused together, giving them the appearance of a mermaid¿s tail.nnDespite carrying the foetus for half a year, Wu decided to terminate her pregnancy after specialists estimated that the baby would only be able to survive for a few hours after birth.nnThe causes behind Mermaid Syndrome are still a medical mystery, and it is said to occur only once in every 100,000 pregnancies.nnShiloh Pepin, an American dubbed "Mermaid Girl", suffered one of the world¿s most well-documented cases of sirenomelia.nnDespite undergoing 150 operations during her relatively short lifetime, she still passed away in 2009 at the age of 10.nnAccording to reports, there are only two known survivors of Mermaid Syndrome in the world today.nn(ends)