Curse of the mermaid.

Milagros Cerron was born in Peru with sirenomelia (mermaid syndrome), a rare abnormality which means her legs are fused together, appearing somewhat like a mermaid's tail. Her parents, Sara and Ricardo, come from the Peruvian mountains where such birth defects are seen to be the result of a curse on the family. The media pick up on the story of this birth which alerts the attention of plastic surgeon Luis Rubio who runs a group of private hospitals in Peru and immediately sends an ambulance over to pick up the baby and bring her to his hospital. What follows is a fascinating meeting of medicine, politics and superstition as Rubio performs the operation to separate Milagros' legs on live television while the family struggle to come to terms with the possibility that Milagros is not damned with a 'mermaid's curse' from the nearby lake.