Monday 20 January 2014

Strange and inspiring story of Abhigail & Brittany,the conjoined twins





Abigail Loraine Hensel and Brittany Lee Hensel (born March 7, 1990) are dicephalic parapagus twins, meaning that they are conjoined twins, each of whom has a separate head, but whose bodies are joined. They are highly symmetric, giving the appearance of having just a single body with little variation from normal proportion. In fact, several vital organs are doubled up; each twin has a separate heart, stomach, spine, and spinal cord.




Each twin controls her half of their body, operating one of the arms and one of the legs. This means that as infants, the initial learning of physical processes that required bodily coordination, such as clapping, crawling, and walking required the cooperation of both children. While each is able to eat and write separately and simultaneously, activities such as running and swimming must be coordinated and alternate symmetrically. Other activities as diverse as brushing hair and driving a car require that each twin perform a sequence of separate actions that coordinate with the other

bigail and Brittany have individual organs in the upper part of their body, while most of them located at or below the level of the navel are shared, the exception being the spinal cord.[7]
  • heads
  • spines merging at the coccyx and joined at the thorax by sections of ribs. Surgery was employed to correct scoliosis.
  • 2 completely separate spinal cords
  • arms (originally 3, but rudimentary central arm was surgically removed, leaving central shoulder blade in place)
  • 1 broad ribcage with 2 highly fused sternums and traces of bridging ribs. Surgery was employed to expand the pleural cavities.
  • breasts
  • hearts in a shared circulatory system (nutrition, respiration, medicine taken by either affects both)
  • lungs with the medial lungs moderately fused, not involving Brittany's upper right lobe; three pleural cavities
  • diaphragm with well-coordinated involuntary breathing, slight central defect
  • stomachs
  • gallbladders

  • liver, enlarged and elongated right lobe
  • Y-shaped small intestine, which experiences a slightly spastic double peristalsis at the juncture
  • large intestine (one colon)
  • kidneys: 2 left, 1 right
  • bladder
  • 1 set of reproductive organs
  • 2 separate half-sacrums, which converge distally
  • 1 slightly broad pelvis
  • legs
  •                  Watch the life of abhigail and Brittany  by clicking on the link below
  •                                                        
  •                                                           ABHIGAIL & BRITTANY

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