A five-year-old girl born with "mermaid syndrome" has taken her first steps after surgery to separate her legs.<br /><br />Blaire Spivey was born with sirenomelia – a rare congenital foetal anomaly which meant her legs were rotated backwards from the knee and fused at her feet.<br /><br />Mum, Noelle Spivey, 35, found out Blaire had the condition at her 12-week scan and said she was told it wasn’t a matter of “if” but “when” her unborn baby would die.<br /><br />She admits she was terrified she'd be "scared" of her own daughter.<br /><br />Blaire survived birth - and underwent a seven hour operation to separate her legs aged 18 months, amputating her legs at the knee.<br /><br />"Sassy” Blaire got her first full-length prosthetic legs last summer - and has now taken her first steps.<br /><br />Noelle, a dental assistant, from Lubbock, Texas, US, said: “I was terrified I would be scared of my baby while I was pregnant.<br /><br />“But when I saw her little feet and little heart I wasn’t terrified at all.<br /><br />“I thought – ‘she’s just my baby’. <br /><br />“She’s perfect.<br /><br />“I tell her she was born a mermaid.<br /><br />“And I say to her - 'not everyone is used to cool legs like you'.<br /><br />“They thought she wouldn’t walk.<br /><br />“She’s beaten the odds.<br /><br />“She’s just a normal kid.<br /><br />“It’s amazing to be her mum.<br /><br />“She’s doing great.<br /><br />“She wants to be able to run.<br /><br />“We try and in still confidence in her.”<br /><br />Noelle was given the news that Blaire had sirenomelia at her 12-week scan.<br /><br />She said: “It felt like an eternity while we were in there.<br /><br />“The doctor came in an essentially said – 'your baby has a fatal condition'.<br /><br />“I started crying – it had been hard enough to get pregnant.<br /><br />“They said ‘it’s not a matter of if she’s going to die but a matter of when’.”<br /><br />Noelle was determined not to give up and was closely monitored throughout the pregnancy.<br /><br />She said: “Most babies diagnosed with mermaid syndrome as a foetus don’t develop a kidney, intestines or genitals.<br /><br />“It’s scary.”<br /><br />Noelle was booked in for a scheduled C-section but at her 37-week scan doctors realised her amniotic fluid levels had dropped she was rushed for an emergency C-section.<br /><br />Blaire was born at 10.27am on February 7 2018 weighing 4lbs 8oz at Texas Children’s Hospital.<br /><br />She said: “It was the happiest moment of my life.<br /><br />“Once they made sure she was OK I got to see her and she was crying.<br /><br />“I put my hand on her head, she looked at me and stopped crying.<br /><br />“She was born with lungs, heart, brain – everything was normal.<br /><br />“But she only had one of her two bones in her lower legs.<br /><br />“Below her knee it was rotated backwards and everything was fused.<br /><br />“I had been terrified of the unknown.<br /><br />“But seeing her in person – I was just calm.”<br /><br />At one-day-old she had a surgery to place a colostomy bag due to intestinal problems.<br /><br />Blaire spent a month in hospital before she was able to go home.<br /><br />At 18-months-old Blaire had an operation to separate her fused legs to give her the opportunity to walk.<br /><br />Noelle said: “She was amputated at the knee and had stubbies fitted the next spring.<br /><br />“Last summer she had her first full-length prosthetics made with feet."
