The so-called mermaid boy of Hunan Province succumbed to multiple organ failure this weekend, a little more than a month after he was born.

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A group of about a dozen medical workers who had been working to keep the boy alive at Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province, were devastated by the loss. The boy, Hao Nan, died at about 8 pm on Sunday evening.

"We saved him from a similar emergency several days ago. We tried our best this time and wished for another miracle," said Xu Yonghua, a senior doctor who had been caring for the mermaid boy.

"I asked for a miracle as I pressed on his chest to get his heart beating again, but I failed," Xu said.

News of the boy's death triggered an outpouring of sorrow as thousands of people from across the country called the hospital and posted on the Internet to bid him farewell.

"I hope the boy will live in peace and happiness in heaven, without noise or pain," said Yang Shu, a middle school student in Beijing.

Hao Nan grabbed the nation's attention after he was found abandoned in front of the hospital on November 12. A note attached to his clothes said he had been born three days before.

His legs, just 21 centimetres long, were joined together from thigh to heel, with the feet splayed out so that they resembled a fish tail.

The boy suffered from a variety congenital problems, including defects of the intestine and alimentary tract, kidneys and urinary tract and heart. He also had an underdeveloped anus and genitals.

The condition, known as sirenomelia, or mermaid syndrome, occurs in one out of every 70,000 births, according to experts.

There are only two known survivors of mermaid syndrome in the world, both girls. One is Tiffany Yorks, a 17-year-old American whose legs were separated when she was a baby. The other is 2-year-old Peruvian Milagros Cerron, who underwent surgery last year.

Hao had developed a peritoneal infection, and his condition started deteriorating after November 28, following a surgical procedure to give him an artificial anus.

Doctors at the hospital tried to keep the boy alive via hematodialysis, a sophisticated procedure that is painful even for adults. The process cleans the blood and remove wastes, but it was not enough to reverse the boy's deteriorating condition.

(China Daily 12/19/2006 page3)