Peru’s ‘Miracle Baby’ Recovering Well
Published: June 9, 2005
One week after surgery to separate her fused legs, 13-month-old Milagros Cerron was recovering quickly, with daily treatments inside a super-oxygenated hyperbaric chamber to speed her healing, her doctors said Wednesday.
Dr. Luis Rubio said there were no complications and showed reporters a video of an examination Tuesday in which doctors opened her bandages and evaluated the results.
“The little girl has no problem with infection or any complications,” said Rubio.
Milagros, whose name means “miracles” in Spanish, was born with her legs connected from thigh to ankle — a rare condition known as sirenomelia, or “mermaid syndrome.”
In the video, doctors used a small circular saw to open the outer cast around Milagros’ legs, then peeled back layers of bandages and cotton wadding to reveal the line of stitches extending from her heels to her inner thighs.
The child was under general anesthesia during the exam. She has was shown on Peruvian TV in recent days, giggling and bouncing to music while doctors, dressed in full surgical gowns, cooed and made faces despite their masks.
Rubio said Milagros’ stitches would remain in place for 10 to 12 days more.
“We will continue with the hyperbaric chamber session, which is a chamber with a high concentration of oxygen in which the girl will be placed 30 or 40 minutes a day, to accelerate the healing process,” he said.
Milagros’ doctors say she will need years of corrective surgery to repair her sexual, digestive and other internal organs.
But her plastic surgeon, Rolando Pinto, said the prognosis is good that she will be able to lead an active life. “We think that before she is two, the little girl, with or without some apparatus, will be able to walk,” he said.
To achieve that goal, he said, she will need intensive therapy to build atrophied muscles and surgery to correct her malformed hips.
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