Sixteenth Birthday celebrations of Conjoined Twins, Abby &
Brittany Hensel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BkKWApOAG2g#at=23
Abigail "Abby" Loraine Hensel and Brittany "Britty" Lee Hensel
(born March 7, 1990 in Carver County, Minnesota, US) are dicephalic
parapagus twins, meaning that they are conjoined twins of whom each
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 woman having a separate heart, stomach,
spine and spinal cord.
Each twin controls half 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 quite separate actions
that coordinate with the other. Abigail and Brittany are notable
both for their rare physiology and for the many successes that they
have achieved in overcoming this physical challenge in their
individual and corporate lives.
Despite the curiosity that their condition has generated, the
Hensel twins have managed to live private lives with relatively
little press attention. At the age of sixteen, they gave an
interview on The Learning Channel on December 17, 2006, in which
they discussed aspects of their daily lives and plans for the
future.
