Shiloh Pepin 
was born in Kennebunkport in Maine in 1999. She was born with a disease called Sirenomelia. With her lower extremities fused, with a bladder and a uterus missing, with only a six inches long large intestine, no vagina, only one ovary and less than half of a kidney. Her survival with so many congenital disorders was nothing short of a miracle.
Such cases usually give way within a few hours or days. When she was born her parents had no hopes of her survival. But a kidney transplant at the age of four months saved her. A second transplant in 2007 was also successful. She was one of the only three children who had survived sironomelia without surgery. This disease is also referred to as ‘the mermaid syndrome’, as the conjoined legs look like a mermaid’s tail.
She was always a playful and outspoken child who loved the attention that she got. She sang with delight and passion, was a very good artist, and never lost a chance to crack jokes, jovial and full of life. She also took swimming lessons with a wet suit specially designed for her and took to water naturally.
After years of medical care, Shiloh’s survival was threatened again. This time it was the cold which in no time turned into pneumonia. She was rushed to the Maine Medical Centre and was immediately put on a ventilator.
With the support of antibiotics she was recouping, when her health started deteriorating all of a sudden. And she finally gave up her battle for existence. She breathed her last on 23rd of October 2009
Shiloh Pepin lived her life to the fullest. Her deformities never dampened her spirit to live. In her mother Eslie Pepin’s words, “she was a tough little thing.”
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