Maine girl with 'mermaid syndrome' dies at 10

In this Dec. 20, 2007 photo, Shiloh Pepin laughs with her parents while sitting on a counter in the family's Kennebunkport, Maine home. Pepin, who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called 'mermaid syndrome,' died Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. She was 10.
(AP Photo/Portland Press Herald, Gregory Rec)



Maine girl with 'mermaid syndrome' dies at 10

2 hrs 13 mins ago

PORTLAND, Maine – Shiloh Pepin, a girl who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," and gained a wide following on the Internet and national television, has died. She was 10.

Doctors had predicted she would only survive only for days after her birth at the most, but the girl, described by her mother as "a tough little thing," died at Maine Medical Center on Friday afternoon, hospital spokesman John Lamb said. She had been hospitalized in critical condition for nearly a week.

Being born with "mermaid syndrome," also known as sirenomelia, meant that the Kennebunkport girl had only one partially working kidney, no lower colon or genital organs and legs fused from the waist down.

Some children who have survived sirenomelia have had surgery to separate their legs, but Shiloh did not because blood vessels crossing from side to side in her circulatory system would have been severed. She had received two kidney transplants, the last one in 2007.

Her story was featured recently on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and other national television programs.

Earlier this month, her mother, Leslie Pepin, said her daughter came down with a cold that quickly turned to pneumonia. Shiloh rushed to Maine Medical Center on Oct. 10 and was placed on antibiotics and a ventilator.

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Safe passage, Shiloh.

Her optimism was infectious long distance, it's hard to imagine that her parents didn't kid themselves as well. Her mother seemed to know though, that she wouldn't be around long. In one interview she said that she had been selfish in demanding that the child be saved, because of all the suffering the child had been through since.

The little girl was very grown up for her age and the parents should never doubt that they did everything they could with the information they had at the time of each decision regarding their daughter's life.

She was a brave little girl and even though she had a lifetime of medical treatments and emergencies, she was loved.

You can see by looking at her what kind of drugs she was on - steroids - which lower one's immunity. A cold can quickly turn into pneumonia in a tx patient.

She seemed so full of life. She was so happy and had a wonderful laugh. She lived life and did what she wanted to do. It's always so sad when a life is cut short too soon.

her and her family.