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.
At age 3, her natural kidney failed, and she began dialysis. A kidney transplant at age 2 lasted a number of years, but sadly had failed. In 2007 at the age of 8, a second kidney transplant was successful. She eventually learned how to swim with her conjoined legs. She attended Consolidated Elementary School. She remained hopeful about her disability, and often joked about and living as a “mermaid girl”.
She lived her life happily, despite her challenges as seen in her TLC reality documentary in “Extraordinary People: Mermaid Girl”. Despite having her legs fused, she always had kept her spirits up. She hadn’t lived an ordinary life, but she never gave up her cheerful disposition.
Shiloh and her family were debating surgery because of the risks involved, as it supposedly would improve her quality of life. Many people with this condition receive surgery when they are young, but Shiloh was already 8 years old in 2007 in this documentary. Shiloh had decided against the surgery because she “didn’t want it to change who she was”. Shiloh was the only one out of the three survivors of sirenomelia without surgery for separation of the conjoined legs. The effects of her surgeries factored to her death while recovering.
According to gonetoosoon.fandom.com and latimes.com. Source of photos: internet
