Shiloh Peppin

On Friday, October 23, Shiloh Peppin, better known as “Mermaid Girl” passed away from a severe case of pneumonia. She was 10 years old and was born with the extremely rare disease known as “Mermaid Syndrome.”

“I can’t believe Mermaid Girl died! She was always so optimistic and she wanted to be an actor when she grew up,” said freshman Nikki Zangenah.

Usually children who are born with this disease end up dying after the first few days, otherwise they are required to have their legs separated. The doctors believed that Shiloh would not live longer than a few years, but luckily she got to live a long ten years that no one else with her disability has ever seen before.

The real name for this disease is called Sirenomelia, but is referred to as the Mermaid Syndrome because it is when a child is born with their legs intertwined from the hips and below making the impression of a mermaid’s tail. Shiloh could not have her legs separated because some of her vital blood vessels that were connected to her circulatory system would be snapped, which would lead to other more severe consequences.

The reason why her name might sound familiar is because Shiloh Peppin has done a few tv episodes and has been a guest star in many shows. There has been two episodes on TLC about her and how she’s been handling her disease and she had also been a guest on “Oprah.” She was one of the three survivors in the world.  ”I watched her on ‘Oprah’ just last week and she seemed so alive and happy. She didn’t even die from her disease,” said freshman Hailey Lutton.

One would think that she would have died from her disease but instead she was diagnosed with a minor fever that turned into a severe case of pneumonia. Overall, this girl was very unlucky at the beginning but was the luckiest out of everyone else with this disease because she lived for ten years rather than one.