Siamese twin brothers. Together and forever: Like two women who share the same body, teach and drive

Since the 10th century, about 200 operations have been carried out to separate conjoined twins. The first successful attempt was made in 1689 by the German surgeon Koenig - he separated the twins, fused at the waist. Despite centuries of experience in conducting such operations, each of them remains unique and involves significant risk.

But the goal was reached

Two hands, two heads, two hearts... Isn't it possible to separate them today, if a successful operation was performed at the end of the 17th century? However, medical historians believe that the German surgeon Koenig was successful only because the twins grew together only in the skin, as well as in the subcutaneous connective tissue and fatty tissue in the waist area. Now the separation of twins is possible in many, but by no means in all cases, and if the twins have common vital organs, such as the liver, surgical intervention is impossible.

The most famous of these operations was carried out on Raditza and Doditz, Siamese sisters born in 1888 in the Indian state of Orissa. They were connected chest and bellies. In 1893, the London impresario began to show girls in the circus. Then, in 1902, they became the main attraction of the exhibition organized by the French Medical Academy. It was there that the doctors discovered that Doditsa had tuberculosis. To save the sister's life, they decided to separate them. An exceptionally difficult operation was performed by Dr. Dowen. But it soon became clear that the operation was unsuccessful. However, her main goal - the extension of the life of Raditsa - was achieved, since she outlived her sister by two whole years.

Now operations pass in most cases quite successfully. Only craniopagi (merged heads) are not always allowed to be separated by the possibilities of modern medicine.

The first successful operation to separate Siamese twins fused with their heads, but each with their own brain, was performed on December 14, 1952 at Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, pc. Ohio, USA, Dr. Jacques S. Geller.

Only one in four survive

In Lithuania, in the city of Alytus, live twelve-year-old girls, Viliya and Vitalia Tamulyavichus, who from birth were doomed, if not to death, then to a terrible life ... If not for the director of the Moscow Institute of Neurosurgery. Burdenko Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Alexander Konovalov. Ten years ago, he performed the first operation to separate twins, fused not only with their foreheads and crowns, but also with their brains! The girls' faces were in different planes, one turned from the other at an angle of about 90 degrees. In general, the twins survived more than 20 complex surgeries. Girls grow up cheerful, talkative, study successfully and love to read. And most importantly, like all twins, they cannot live even an hour without each other.

On average, after operations to separate Siamese twins, only one in four survives. Moreover, surgical intervention is considered successful even if one of the patients dies.

When conjoined twins are born sick, doctors and relatives face a difficult ethical problem. Sometimes only one twin has a chance to survive, and for this you need to sacrifice the life of the second twin. Parents may choose to surgically separate twins and save the life of the strongest twin. A similar incident occurred in 1993 with Emmy and Angela Lakeberg.

Less than 1% chance

The sisters were born fused from chest to belly; they shared a liver and a deformed heart. Their mother, Rita Lakeberg, knew she was carrying conjoined twins who had little chance of surviving and considered having an abortion, but in the end said, "I can't get rid of my babies." The twins were born so weak that doctors wanted to immediately turn off the air supply that kept them alive.

But the Lakebergs found a clinic in Philadelphia where surgeons undertook to separate the sisters in the hope that they could operate on the deformed heart to save the life of one of them. Angela had a better chance, but still, she had less than a 1% chance of surviving.

The operation lasted five and a half hours, Emmy did not live two hours before its completion. Angela's condition after the operation was stable, but 10 months later, right before her first birthday, she also died.

Rita Lakeberg closed her eyes to financial side problems and explained: "I could not live on, torturing myself with the question of whether it was possible to save the life of one of the twins." But the public questioned whether such costly surgeries were necessary when the chances of success were so low and many people could not get basic medical care due to lack of funds.

In addition, operations of this kind are contrary to the main provision of the Hippocratic oath, namely "do no harm." The experts pointed to the fact that if the twins were not conjoined, if both of them fell ill, no one would offer to donate one of the sisters and transplant her. internal organs second. It has been suggested that the public does not mind drastic measures being taken on conjoined twins simply because many perceive them to be monsters.

But there is another point of view on the operation to separate Siamese twins - they are seen as the last opportunity to save a person's life. When fused twins Christina and Betsy Woden were born in 1973, doctors separated them, and Betsy died of a heart defect. Christina is still alive and well. Their mother, Zhanna Wolzek, said: “They had to be separated, so what happened was what had to happen. The strongest survive, the weak may not, but it just so happened: sometimes you have to sacrifice something to save someone life".

Operate or not?

In 1990, Lev Borisovich Novokreshchenov, head of the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Orthopedics and Traumatology at the Chelyabinsk Medical Institute, did not have a dilemma at all - to perform or not to perform an operation. After, according to the ultrasound examination, it became known in advance in the city that Siamese twins were to be born to a young woman, a worker of one of the Chelyabinsk factories, Novokreshchenov knew for himself: of course, he would try to separate the children. Yes, and how else? This will have to be done as soon as possible, as soon as circumstances allow: every extra hour of the tragic mistake of nature will bring unnecessary torment to both the mother of the twins and the babies themselves.

They may ask why they dragged on for 36 days without having this operation done earlier, if they were preparing for it and decided on it a long time ago? An unhealed wound in the navel area interfered. Instinctively, the poor children kept pushing away from each other, and the wound got worse. When surgeons visiting children realized the futility of conservative efforts, they took infants to surgery with this powerful risk factor.

The operation lasted one hour and forty-five minutes and went remarkably smoothly. Well, what about emotions? There was composure, a desire for success, a great pity for the children. And, of course, scientific interest and scientific pride. Through careful preliminary studies, we have established that conjoined twins (more precisely, I would call them undivided) share a liver with two independent bile collectors, independent gastrointestinal tracts, urinary systems and cardiopulmonary complexes. And under endotracheal anesthesia (halothane, nitrous oxide, calypsol, oxygen) with controlled breathing of both twins (muscle relaxation with dithylin), a skin incision was made along the midline of the connecting "bridge" and along its entire front surface with the intersection of the common xiphoid process.

Loops of intestines were found through a significantly stretched ribbon of white pine and the parietal peritoneum of the "bridge", a pleasant surprise was the discovery already during the operation of a kind of partition between the abdominal cavities of the twins from the liver to the navel. Nature, as it were, tried to at least partially correct its monstrous mistake by creating this partition in the form of two thin petals, which became a guiding line for surgeons.

Now the question was how exactly to divide the liver. The weight of the babies was at birth 4700, at the time of the operation - 5800 grams. It seemed rude and blasphemous to apply the widely used Vietnamese method when dividing the liver, in which the surgeon actually tears the body of the liver with his fingers, exposing, like strings, vessels and bile ducts. Novokreshchenov used a thinner instrument - Billroth's curved hemostatic forceps. There were other successful tactics.

The surgeon believes that the team was lucky: there was no threat to the lives of the babies during the operation. Everything happened under close monitoring.

Who are craniopagi?

In 2001, British surgeons successfully separated Siamese twins who had fused at the base of the spine. According to the Birmingham doctors who performed the operation, it was only the third such operation in the world. Now the separated patients, who have already become teenagers, feel good.

Siamese twins Eman and Sanchia were born in Birmingham Children's Hospital. They were connected not only by a section of the spine, but also by a part of the intestine. However, during the 15-hour operation, the surgeons managed to separate the twins without visible complications.

The main part of the team of surgeons were local specialists, but they worked with the assistance of Lewis Spitz from the Children's Hospital, Great Ormond Street in London, who is the world's largest specialist in Siamese twins. The surgeons had to separate the spinal cord. In addition, doctors were faced with the need to separate the intestine. They also had to solve the problem of the lack of skin to close the defect formed after separation. To do this, a few weeks before the operation, skin-stretching balloons were placed under the skin of the twins and inflated.

In 2002, an operation to separate the fused skulls of the sisters Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus Quih-Alvarez was performed at the UCLA clinic and lasted more than 20 hours. They say their theoretical chance of survival was one in a million. However, everything went well. Perhaps the most severe manifestation of craniopagia is the situation when two separate brains of twins have common blood vessels. When surgeons separate the vessels of the skull, serious circulatory disorders can occur in the brain, most dangerous for adult patients. In children, the brain is much easier to tolerate such complications.

A complex operation to separate Siamese twins fused in the head area requires lengthy preparation and many diagnostic procedures. First of all, doctors are convinced that the brains of two twins are not connected, and they are functionally independent: they breathe, sleep and move out of sync.

It is also important for doctors to determine how connected the circulatory systems of the twins are. To do this, one of them is injected into a vein with a special substance, the path of which through the vessels can be traced using an X-ray machine. The screen shows how fast the substance gets from one twin to another, and which vessels are involved in this process.

By determining the speed of movement of the same substance through the vessels of each of the twins, it is possible to assess how efficiently their hearts work, and whether they are able to provide an autonomous blood supply to their organisms after separation. The speed and efficiency of the removal of the radiopaque substance from the body allows us to judge the work of the kidneys.

The proportion of craniopagus among all Siamese twins is no more than 6%. Such a pathology occurs when the embryo, giving rise to two identical embryos, does not completely separate. This process occurs in the second week of pregnancy. The skulls of twins are most often connected in the parietal region; occipital and frontal fusions also occur.

The most successful operations are the separation of twins, which have a small number of common vessels and no defects in the meninges. Fusion of two different cranial boxes in this case occurs only in a small area.

Most often, complications are characteristic in the case of the so-called complete craniopagus. On a tomogram of the skull of such twins, a single cranium is visible, in which two brains are located. However, even with a large area of ​​union, a positive outcome of the operation is possible, provided that the twins have few common vessels.

The technique of surgery for division and replacement of the skull defect is selected individually in each case of craniopagia. Sometimes doctors even resort to complete cardiac arrest, artificial circulation and lowering the body.

Periodically appearing reports of successful and not so successful operations to separate Siamese twins suggest that more of them have been born than before. Is this true and why are such children born at all? Is it possible to predict their appearance on early dates pregnancy?

Thai Siamese twins Pantawan and Panwad Tienjai were lucky to be born at the beginning of the 21st century with the current level of development of medicine. Although, of course, it’s probably wrong to talk about luck when the girls’ heart and liver turned out to be fused. However, 60 doctors managed to separate the sisters in 12 hours at the Bangkok Medical Center, and now this operation is considered the first successful case of separation of the heart and liver in the world.

Previously, an attempt to share a common heart and liver between two American sisters, Emmy and Angela Lakeburg, was made in the United States in 1993. Moreover, even before the operation, it was known that one of the sisters would have to die. But after the end of the medical intervention, the surviving sister, 10 months later, becomes infected with pneumonia and dies right within the walls of the hospital.

But, despite the success of Asian doctors, the Americans still remain the leader in successful operations for Siamese twins. This is explained by the fact that such interventions began to be done there back in the 60s of the last century, a lot of experience has been accumulated, and over the past 10 years, 250 operations have been performed in US clinics, which allowed either both or one of the twins to survive. In 2005, the Egyptian boys Mohammed and Ahmet, who were born with a fused brain, were successfully operated on there. The operation lasted more than a day. General statistics show that it is possible to save the life of both or at least one Siamese twin during separation in 75% of cases.

Why "Siamese"?

Brothers and sisters fused with different parts of the body were born, probably, always. The first mention of such an anomaly that occurred on the territory of Armenia dates back to 945. Probably the first documented evidence of Siamese twins kept in the Philadelphia Museum: a description of the so-called Bidden Maidens. The sisters Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst were born at Bidden in Kent in 1100. They were joined at the hips and died at the age of 34.

And the first operation to separate Siamese twins was carried out in 1689 by the German surgeon Koenig. But, the twins Eng and Chang, who were born on May 11, 1811 in Siam (now Thailand), became truly famous in the world, and they gave the name to this natural phenomenon.

Miraculously, thanks to the mother's fortitude, having escaped death in infancy, when the king of Siam ordered the death of children bearing the "seal of the devil", the brothers brought fame not only to themselves, but also to their country. Merged at the waist, Eng and Chang traveled the world and showed themselves to the public, which also brought them a lot of money.

Newspapers wrote about them, they were received by European royal courts, and in 1839, having completed their tour, they finally settled in the United States and took up farming. Things went well and soon both brothers married the Jans sisters, who, we note, were not Siamese. In total, two couples produced twenty-one children. All the children were normal, except for Chang's two sons, who were born deaf and mute.

There was a moment in their lives when the brothers visited the surgeon and asked to be separated. But the doctor refused, suggesting that it would be better to immediately cut off their heads. True, he advised them to immediately lie down on the operating table, if suddenly one of the twins dies, in order to have time to save the life of the other. But in 1874, when Chang suddenly died in his sleep, there was no doctor around, and Eng outlived his brother by only three hours.

Where does trouble come from

Today, scientists cannot answer the question why Siamese twins are born in one case in 10 million newborns.

Although they are well aware of how it happens. Usually, the egg, if it begins to develop the lives of two identical twins (these are the ones that then look the same), splits into two within two weeks after conception.

But if splitting did not occur on the 13th day, then it remains fused. Depending on whether the egg changed its mind about splitting sooner or later, the most different kinds fruit compounds.

Sometimes it happens that one of the twins develops only partially, and people are born with three or four arms or legs growing from different parts of the body. Perhaps the most unique variety of Siamese twins was the French nobleman Lazar John-Baptista Colloredo, who lived in 1617. A brother grew out of his belly, facing Lazar.

The reasons for such abnormal egg divisions are not completely clear, but among the first, doctors name: genetic failure, environmental exposure, various toxic factors, side effects of drugs, and even psychological moments.

Can an expectant mother know in advance if Siamese twins are developing in her womb? It would seem that with modern methods of research - this is not a problem. But in practice, everything is more complicated. Recently in Israel, where the level of development of medicine is beyond doubt, a scandal erupted. At the Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer, an Orthodox Jewish couple gave birth to tummy tuck girls.

But the essence of the scandal was not in the very birth of Siamese twins, but in the fact that the woman underwent all the necessary tests, including ultrasound examinations, both two prescribed by the rules, and several additional ones, in the period from 18 to 26 weeks of pregnancy. All the doctors unanimously stated that the pregnancy is going well, the twins are absolutely healthy.

On the other hand, if doctors manage to determine in time (usually with the help of ultrasound) that a woman is carrying Siamese twins, modern medical technology sometimes allows them to be separated while still in the womb. True, this usually leads to the death of one of the brothers or sisters.

“It is not always possible to determine whether a mother of Siamese twins or just twins is pregnant before childbirth,” says the head of the gynecology department of the Endocrinological center of RAMS, professor Elena Andreeva. - The accuracy of the diagnosis depends on how exactly the twins have grown together (if in the abdomen, then it is more difficult to see the pathology), on the quality of the equipment on which the study is carried out and, of course, on the qualifications of the doctor. In addition, it also plays a role when, at what period of pregnancy, the study was conducted. The optimal period for detecting such a deviation is from the 20th to the 30th week of pregnancy."

Chang and Eng were born on May 11, 1811 in Siam, in what is now Thailand. It was after the Bunker brothers became known to the world that the fused twins began to be called Siamese. It should be noted that the king of Siam was so struck by the birth of Chang and Eng that he ordered the twins to be killed immediately so as not to bring trouble to the state. But the mother refused to give up her boys, and the king's order was never carried out.

At the same time, the medical technologies of the 19th century did not leave Chang and Eng any chance of separation: the brothers were thoracopagi (twins fused in the chest), and in this case the heart is always affected. Even with the current level of medicine, the chances of surviving a separation are very small, and then it meant certain death. Therefore, Chang and Eng grew up like ordinary children - in fact, they had no choice.

When the brothers were teenagers, they were noticed by British businessman Robert Hunter and invited Chang and Eng to perform in his circus, demonstrating their body and its abilities. It was a big risk, but Hunter turned out to be an honest man. The brothers toured the UK and the US until they were 21 and became wealthy after the end of their contract with Hunter.

Chang and Eng moved to the US, took the surname Bunker, entered into a contract with the famous Phineas Barnum Circus and bought a farm. On April 13, 1843, a double wedding took place: Chang and Eng married two sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Ann Aytes. In these marriages, Chang had 10 children, and Eng had 11.

The brothers lived on their farm in a circle loving family until his death in 1874: Chang fell ill with pneumonia and died, and Eng died a few hours later. They were 63 years old.

Rose and Joseph Blazek

The sisters from Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) were born in 1878. It was not possible to separate the sisters, fused in the pelvic area. The parents of Rosa and Josepha were so frightened by this that at first they decided simply not to feed the sisters so that they would starve to death. It is not known for what reason they changed their minds, but Rosa and Josepha grew up. Since it was difficult for them to study with ordinary children, the parents preferred to teach the sisters music and, oddly enough, dancing. The sisters played the violin and harp and really knew how to dance, each with her own partner. They performed regularly and were generally successful. And then Rose fell in love.

Her chosen one was a German officer who almost quarreled with her sister Rosa. Rosa and Josepha had one external genitalia for two, so at first there was no question of any intimate relationship. However, later Josepha relented and allowed her sister to reunite with her lover. And something happened that no one expected: Rosa became pregnant. It was Rosa, because each of the sisters had her own uterus. The newborn was named Franz. It was an absolutely healthy baby, whom the sisters brought up together, since both of them had milk. At the same time, legally, they were also both considered the mothers of Franz. The baby's father, unfortunately, died in the war.

After Rosa and Josepha had novels, once the sisters even wanted to get married, but they were not allowed to: according to the law, such a marriage would be considered bigamy. But in any case, the sisters managed to know both the love and the happiness of motherhood.

Rose and Joseph died in 1922. Josepha fell ill with jaundice, and the doctors offered Rosa a separation in order to save at least her. Rose refused. “If Josepha dies, I want to die too,” she said.

Millie and Christina McCoy

Fate has prepared cruel trials for the black sisters Millie and Christina: twins fused back and pelvis were born into a family of slaves in northern California. When they were 8 months old, the owner sold them along with their mother, but the new owner preferred to immediately resell the twins to the circus of freaks. From where the girls were soon kidnapped. Only three years later they were discovered in England and returned to the United States.

Then their owner, apparently, decided that the fused twins themselves were not so interesting to the public, and began to teach the girls to sing. So Milli and Christina, who had no chance of separation or freedom, got a chance to realize their talents. The girls sang really well.

After the death of the owner of the slaves, his son Joseph inherited, who came up with a new legend for the sisters: Milli and Christina became Milli-Christina, one girl with two heads, four arms and four legs. This is exactly how he represented his wards. But it didn't matter anymore. Milli and Christina sang so beautifully that fans came to see not their physical features, but to enjoy the sisters' voices. The "two-headed nightingale", as Milli and Christina were called, became extraordinarily popular. Soon the girls began not only to sing, but also to play musical instruments and even dance.

And after the civil war and the abolition of slavery, Millie and Christina not only gained freedom, but became very rich and respected ladies. Musical talent allowed them to earn a comfortable life. At the age of 58, the sisters left the stage and became Millie and Christina again. They returned to North Carolina, bought a house in Columbus, and spent the rest of their days relaxing. They died at the age of 61.

Abigail and Brittany Hensel

Perhaps the most famous living Siamese twins are sisters Abigail and Brittany Hensel from the United States. This is the rarest case of survivors (and living full life!) dicephalic twins: two sisters have two heads, one torso, two arms, two legs and three lungs. Each has its own heart and stomach, but the blood supply between them is common. The two spinal cords end in one pelvis, and they have all the organs below the waist in common. In fact, from the side, dicephali look like a person with two heads. And at the same time they manage to lead a full life.

Each of the sisters controls their half of the body, but Brittany and Abigail have learned to coordinate movements with such precision that they can run, swim, ride a bicycle and even drive a car (each has their own driver's license). The girls studied in regular school and in childhood both dreamed of becoming doctors. Parents strongly supported any hobbies of the sisters, and therefore Brittany and Abigail managed not to feel like outcasts: they never hid at home and tried not to react to the increased attention of strangers. As a result, the girls live a full life: they have many friends and hobbies.

Moreover, the girls graduated from the university with a degree in Mathematics Teacher, and each received a license. They got a job, but they get the same salary for two. “Of course, we immediately realized that we would have one salary, because we do the work of one person,” says Abby.

By the way, Abigail and Brittany have their own Facebook page.

These people are used to the fact that they are one

Thirty years ago, on September 6, 1987, doctors for the first time were able to separate Siamese twins - and give life to two seven-month-old boys from Germany who were born with their heads fused. Then a group of several dozen surgeons led by an American neurosurgeon Benjamin Solomon Carson during a multi-hour operation that lasted almost a day, she proved that what had previously seemed impossible is possible.

According to statistics World Organization health care, in Europe, one birth out of 80 thousand ends with the birth of Siamese twins, in the world - one birth out of 60 thousand. Most often, girls are born. Almost half of babies are stillborn, about 70% of these twins die in the first months. However, history knows enough cases when Siamese twins lived for several decades. Whether they were happy or not is another matter.

Chang and Eng Bunker

Conjoined twins are called Siamese due to Chang and Eng Bunker who were born in 1811 in Siam and became famous all over the world as circus performers.

The Bunker brothers were fused with each other's chests. They lived a very long and successful life and even got families and offspring. Chang had ten children, Eng had eleven. They died at the age of 63, on the same day: Chang caught pneumonia and died suddenly (according to another version, he died of a stroke). The surgeon, who promised his surviving brother to perform a separation operation to save his life, was delayed on the road. Eng outlived his deceased twin by several hours.

Millie and Christina McCoy

Siamese twins Millie and Christina McCoy were born in the United States in 1851 to a family of slaves. Girls were sold and inherited from one owner to another, abducted.

As adults, they began to sing and dance in the show. They were released on stage under the pseudonym of the Two-Headed Nightingale and represented one girl - but with two heads, four arms and legs. The McCoy sisters, like the Bunker brothers, lived a very long life - they died in 1912 at 61 years old with a difference of several hours.

Rose and Joseph Blazek

Siamese twins from Bohemia (now Czech Republic) Rose and Joseph Blazek were born in 1878 fused in the pelvis. They also chose an artistic career, but they did not manage to earn a lot of money. In 1910, one of them gave birth to a son - the father of the child was unknown. When it became known about her pregnancy, the press at first perceived it as a duck, doctors believed that childbirth could be deadly for both twins - but everything worked out. The Blazek sisters died in 1922 almost simultaneously.

Violetta and Daisy Hilton

Famous American Siamese twins of British origin Daisy and Violetta Hilton in the 1930s they toured Europe and the United States with great success.

The girls were born in 1908, they fused in the pelvis, but they did not have common vital organs. The barmaid mother quickly got rid of her daughters - she sold them to the owner of the circus. The Hilton sisters went to their first performance at the age of three. In 1931, they began to sue the "owners" and eventually received the long-awaited freedom and a decent amount of dollars in compensation, after which they organized their own theatrical show. Daisy and Violetta Hilton performed into old age and died in 1969. Daisy died of flu complications, her twin sister, as the American press wrote, outlived her by a few days. She quietly faded away, not wanting to seek help from doctors.

Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov

The fate of the most famous Siamese twins of the Soviet Union - Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapov turned out to be tragic. They were born in 1950 in Moscow. As the press wrote, their mothers at first did not want to show the newborns and reported that they had died. After one of the nurses nevertheless decided to show the mother of the girls, she went crazy and was treated for a long time in a psychiatric clinic.

The Krivoshlyapov sisters met her only when they were well over thirty. The father, under pressure from doctors, signed the death certificate for his daughters, Masha and Dasha never saw him afterwards.

The Krivoshlyapov sisters, who lived most of their lives in a special institution for the disabled, were “studied” for many years at the Institute of Pediatrics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, then at one of the research institutes. The girls were taught to move around on crutches and were given a minimal education - in fact, they were only taught to count, read and write. They wrote that in adulthood they suffered from alcohol addiction. The Krivoshlyapovs died in the spring of 2003 - first, Maria died of a heart attack, and less than a day later, Daria also died of intoxication.

In 2003, the world's oldest Siamese twins Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapovs ended their difficult life. pic.twitter.com/lwhPQEANeA

Ronnie and Donnie Galion

Ronnie and Donnie Galion today they are considered the oldest living Siamese twins (their record is officially recorded in the Guinness Book of Records). They were born in 1951 in the American city of Dayton. The twins spent the first two years in the hospital, all this time the doctors were looking for a way to separate the babies, fused below the waist. Their parents, having assessed the risks, eventually decided to leave everything as it is.

From the age of four, Ronnie and Donnie Galion began to earn money by performing in the circus. As children, they often sorted things out and even demanded to “cut” them, but over the years they learned to find a compromise and got used to the fact that they have one body - and two souls. They do very well without outside help and live in their own house, where their younger brother visits them.

There are two amazing girls in the US state of Minnesota: Abigail and Brittany Hensel. They are Siamese twins. The girls have a common body, a pair of arms and a pair of legs, but two heads - and two personalities. Despite this, Abby and Brittany live not only full, but also very rich lives: they study, travel, go shopping, drive a car, hang out with friends and work.

The Hensel sisters were born in March 1990 to a family of a nurse and a carpenter, later they had younger brother and sister. Since operations to separate Siamese twins are very dangerous and often result in the death of one or both children, the parents decided to leave things as they are.

Abby and Brittany graduated from high school and then Bethel University in Minnesota. They graduated from the university at 22, that is, not only not later, but even earlier than many of their peers. The sisters did not look home work or a position where they could avoid prying eyes. On the contrary, Abby and Brittany have chosen a profession that requires maximum sociability: an elementary school teacher.

Each of the sisters has their own driver's license, and each took exams to get them. But, of course, they drive together: Abby controls the gas and brake pedals, and Brittany is in charge of the rest of the switches (in fact, one exam could have been enough).

Abby controls the gas and brake pedals, while Brittany controls the rest of the switches.

When the sisters are going on a trip, they buy one ticket, because they occupy one seat on the plane. This usually does not cause problems, but being in a confined space with big amount strangers can be difficult due to the obsessive attention of others and attempts to photograph sisters.