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What would your life be like as a conjoined twin like the Hensels?

Asked by SeventhSense (18914points) May 3rd, 2009

I just finished watching an episode of TLC.
Abby and Brittany Hensel are conjoined twins with two heads, two legs and two arms. As fascinated as I was by this it brought up a million questions of how things are done. It seems almost endless from cutting an apple to chatting online. They passed their drivers test and drive a car, walk, run, write and type

From Wikipedia:
Each of the twins manages one side of their conjoined body and they are quite ambidextrous and coordinated in both their arms and legs when both hands or both legs are required. By coordinating their efforts, they are able to walk, run and ride a bicycle normally — all tasks that they learned at a normal speed. They each write with their corresponding hand. Together, they can type on a computer keyboard at a normal speed. Their sense of touch is partitioned to their own body half, which shades off at the midsagittal plane such that there is a small amount of overlap at their midline
Their organ distribution and number of body parts
2 heads
2 completely separate spinal cords
2 spines with ribs bridging the two columns
2 arms (originally 3, but rudimentary central arm was surgically removed, leaving central shoulder blade in place)
1 broad ribcage, with surgery to correct scoliosis and expand the pleural cavities
2 breasts
2 highly fused sternums, traces of bridging ribs
4 lungs (medial lungs moderately fused, not involving Brittany’s upper right lobe); three pleural cavities
1 diaphragm with well-coordinated involuntary breathing, slight central defect
2 hearts in a shared circulatory system (nutrition, respiration, medicine taken by either affects both)
2 stomachs
2 gallbladders
1 liver, enlarged and elongated right lobe
Y-shaped small intestine which experiences a slightly spastic double peristalsis at the juncture
1 large intestine with one colon
2 left kidneys, 1 right kidney
1 bladder
1 set of reproductive organs
2 separate half-sacrums, which converge distally
1 slightly broad pelvis
2 legs

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