Mermaid baby returns to Phuket

PHUKET CITY: The Burmese infant born with ‘mermaid syndrome’ returned to Phuket on Wednesday night after being declared terminally ill by doctors at Prince of Songkla University (PSU) Hospital in Songkhla’s Haad Yai district.

The baby girl, named Nichapa, is now back at Vachira Phuket Hospital, where she was born earlier this month.

She was rushed to PSU Hospital after doctors at Vachira Phuket were unable to locate her kidneys.

PSU doctors were able to create an artificial anus for Nichapa and get her feeding and breathing on her own, but said her tiny kidneys left her with little chance of survival.

Vachira Phuket Assistant Director Dr Sirichai Silapa-archa said the hospital was prepared to release the child to her parents, but her mother was afraid to care for the infant on her own.

Given the prognosis of the PSU doctors, Nichapa’s only chance of survival is a kidney transplant, he said.

Such transplants have been successfully performed abroad in cases like Nichapa’s, Dr Sirichai said.

Vachira Phuket is now consulting with some of Thailand’s top medical establishments, including Chulalongkorn, Ramathibodi, and Mahidol hospitals in Bangkok, about the best course of action.

Doctors there have also contacted doctors at an international hospital on the island about the possibility of trying to save the three-week-old child with a pig kidney transplant, he said.

— Atchaa Khamlo