Okay, first of all, let me say that I don’t mean “strange” in any sort of way that reflects negatively on the persons involved, but only in the context of “not ordinary.” I was just flipping through the channels when I hit on something about Abigail and Brittany Hensel. They are now 17 years old and live in Minnesota and are the most extreme example of conjoined twins with partial development that is nearly symmetrical I have ever seen. They seem to do okay but… wow… what a strange and extreme example of variation, although this is probably due to development and not genetics. Here’s a video from youtube:

They literally are two heads sharing one body, although their upper body does diverge into two spines. They have duplicate upper organs, including two hearts and four lungs. The inner lungs are conjoined, however. There is only one rib cage, but it is extended. Each one controls half of the body and each can feel only one half of the body, still they have developed the ability to walk in a mostly normal manner.All I can say is that I’m glad that they live in an age where they’re allowed to live and respected and not seen as a demonic entity as they probably would have been at one time. Given the underdevelopment of each side there’s no possibility of separation. You would basically need another body for one of them. But modern medicine has provided them with surgery to expand their chest, relieving breathing difficulties and also the ability to correct spinal defects.I wonder if they suffer from any kinks in the neck.

---

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Good Science, Misc, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

---

View blog reactions