sunt foarte simetrici pentru gemenii

conjugați, oferind aspectul de a avea un

singur corp, fără variație marcată de
proporțiile normale. Fiecare are o inimă
separată , stomac , coloană vertebrală ,
pereche de plămâni și măduva spinării .
 Abby și Brittany Hensel
Născut Abigail Loraine Hensel
Brittany Lee Hensel
7 martie 1990
Noua Germania,
Minnesota , SUA

Educaţie Universitatea Bethel

Fiecare gemeni controlează câte un braț

și un picior. În timp ce sugarii, învățând
să se târască, să meargă și să aplece au
necesitat cooperare. Ei pot mânca și
scrie separat și simultan. Activități
precum alergarea, înotul, perierea părului
și conducerea unei mașini necesită
acțiuni coordonate.

Progresul gemenilor a fost acoperit în

mass-media populare, inclusiv în revista
Life și în The Oprah Winfrey Show .
Aceștia au fost intervievați pe The
Learning Channel în decembrie 2006,
discutând despre viața lor de zi cu zi și
despre planurile de viitor. Au jucat în
propria serie de realitate, Abby & Brittany ,
pe TLC în 2012. [1] [2]

f
u
n
d
a
l
The twins were born in Carver County,
Minnesota, to Patty, a registered nurse,
and Mike Hensel, a carpenter and
landscaper. They have a younger brother
and sister. They were raised in New
Germany, Minnesota, attended Mayer
Lutheran High School in Mayer, and
graduated from Bethel University in St.
Paul in 2012.

Fiziologie
The twins have a single body with
separate heads and necks, a chest that is
wider than normal, two arms, and two
legs. At birth, they had a rudimentary arm
between the bases of their necks
attached to a shoulder blade at the back,
being combined parts of Abby's left arm
and Brittany's right arm. It was removed,
leaving the shoulder blade.

Abby's head tilts laterally outward about

5 degrees to the right, while Brittany's
tilts laterally at about 15 degrees to the
left, causing her to appear shorter even
when seated. Brittany's leg is in fact
nearly two inches shorter than Abby's
and Brittany tends to stand and walk on
tip-toe which has made her calf muscle
significantly larger than Abby's.[3] The
continued growth of Abby's spine was
surgically halted after Brittany
prematurely stopped growing.[3] At age
12, they underwent surgery at Gillette
Children's Specialty Healthcare to correct
scoliosis and to expand their chest cavity
to prevent future difficulties with
breathing.[4]

Each twin manages one side of their

conjoined body. The sense of touch of
each is restricted to her body half; this
shades off at the midsagittal plane such
that there is a small amount of overlap at
the midline. Stomach aches, however, are
felt by only the twin on the opposite
side.[3]
They cooperatively use their limbs when
both hands or both legs are required. By
coordinating their efforts, they are able to
walk, run, swim, and ride a bicycle
normally. Together, they can type on a
computer keyboard and drive a car.
However, their disparate heights (Abby,
5 ft 2 in (1.57 m), is taller and longer of
leg than Brittany, 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m))[5] led
to difficulty in balancing a Segway, as
shown in their 2012 reality series.[3]
Organ distribution

The twins have individual organs in the

upper part of their body, while most
located at or below the level of the navel
are shared, the exception being the
spinal cord.

2 heads
2 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
2 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.
2 breasts
2 hearts in a shared circulatory system
(nutrition, respiration, medicine taken
by either affects both)
4 lungs with the 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 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 (one colon)
3 kidneys: 2 left, 1 right
1 bladder
1 set of reproductive organs
 2 separate half-sacrums, which
converge distally
1 slightly broad pelvis
2 legs

Separation

Upon their birth, the twins' parents

decided not to attempt surgical
separation after hearing from doctors
that it was not likely that both would
survive the operation. As the twins grew
and learned to walk and develop other
skills, their parents confirmed their
decision against separation, arguing that
the quality of life for the surviving twin or
twins living separately would be less than
their quality of life as conjoined people.[6]

v
â
r
s
t
 e
i
a
d
u
l
t
e
The twins both passed their driver's
license exams, both the written and
practical tests. Although driving is a
coordinated activity, they had to take the
test twice, once for each twin. Abby
controls the devices on the right of the
driver's seat; Brittany, those on the left.
Together they control the steering wheel.

They both graduated from high school in

2008. They began college at Bethel
University in Arden Hills, Minnesota,
majoring in education. They had
considered pursuing different
concentrations within that major, but the
volume of extra coursework was
prohibitive.[7] They graduated with
Bachelor of Arts degrees in 2012.[7]

Some of the twins' clothes are altered by

a seamstress so that they have two
separate necklines, in order to
emphasize their individuality. They
usually have separate meals, but
sometimes share a single meal for the
sake of convenience. For tasks such as
responding to email, they type and
respond as one, anticipating each other's
feelings with little verbal communication
between them. In such cases as the
latter, their choice of grammatical person
is to use "I" when they agree, but use
their names when their responses do
differ.

There is some concern about the twins'

continued good health, because only four
known sets of conjoined twins who share
an undivided torso and two legs have
ever survived into adulthood, and most
have congenital heart defects or other
organ anomalies. None have shown up in
their case.

They intensely dislike being stared at or

photographed by strangers while going
about their private lives.[8] In interviews
for the Discovery Channel in 2006, they,
then 16, said that they hoped to date, get
married, and have children. They also
stated that they hoped that by providing
some information about themselves,
they would be able to lead otherwise
fairly typical social lives.[8][9]

Apariții media
The twins appeared on The Oprah Winfrey
Show on April 8 and April 29, 1996.
During the same month, they were
featured on the cover of Life under the
caption "One Body, Two Souls", and their
daily lifestyle was described in the article,
"The Hensels' Summer".[10] Life followed
up with another story in September 1998.
In 2002, they appeared in Joined for Life,
a TV documentary by Advanced Medical
Productions, distributed on the Discovery
Health Channel[11] and a 2003 follow-up,
Joined at Birth.[12]

In 2003, an updated story of them at age

11 (filmed in 2001) was published in
Time and again in Life. ABC TV also did a
documentary called "Joined For
Life".[13][14]

A UK television special in 2005 as part of

the series Extraordinary People.[15] In
2006, Advanced Medical made another
documentary, Joined for Life: Abby &
Brittany turn 16,[16] that discusses their
adolescence, school, social life, and
activities such as getting their driver's
licenses.[6]
The twins starred in the reality TV show
Abby & Brittany that started in August
2012.[1] Abby and Brittany: Joined for Life
was shown by the BBC in the UK in May
2013, and covers the period from their
finishing college to starting a part-time
teaching job.[17]

f
i
l
m
 o
g
r
a
f
i
e
Documentaries and other television
appearances include:
First aired Title Distributor Produced by
April 8, The Oprah Winfrey Show King World Harpo Productions
1996 Productions
March 27, Joined for Life Discovery Advanced Medical Productions,
2003 Channel American Broadcasting Company
December Joined for Life: Abby and Brittany TLC Advanced Medical Productions
17, 2006 Turn 16[18]
February Extraordinary People: The Twins Five (UK) One North
19, 2007 Who Share a Body[19]
August 28, Abby & Brittany TLC
2012

Referințe
1. "Conjoined twins 'Abby & Brittany' get
their own reality show" . Yahoo!TV.
Archived from the original on 2012-
08-09. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
2. "Abby Hensel, Brittany Hensel Reality
Show: Conjoined Twins Star In TLC's
'Abby And Brittany' " . Huffington
Post. August 11, 2012.
3. Abby & Brittany, Episode 3
4. "The Twins Who Share a Body" .
mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk. Archived
from the original on 2013-11-11.
Retrieved 2011-12-23.
5. Wallis, Lucy. "Living a conjoined life" ,
BBC News, 24 April 2013
6. Wallis, Claudia (1996-03-25). "The
Most Intimate Bond" . TIME.
Retrieved 2011-12-23.
7. Abby & Brittany, Episode 4
8. Hoffman, Kevin (2008-02-28).
"Minnesota's Abby and Brittany
Hensel, conjoined twins, make
Newsweek" . citypages.com.
Archived from the original on 2012-
01-03. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
 9. Schrobsdorff, Susanna (2008-02-23).
"Reality's Believe It or Not" .
Newsweek.com. Retrieved May 4,
2014.
10. "Joined for life - co-joined six-year-
old Hensel twins share many body
parts: includes a related article on a
set of sextuplets". Science World.
Find Articles. 1996-10-04.
11. "Joined For Life" , Advanced Medical
Productions, 2002, accessed
 November 11, 2012
12. Joined at Birth , Advanced Medical
Productions, 2003, accessed
November 11, 2012
13. "ABC TV Documentaries: Joined For
Life" . abc.net.au. 2003-03-27.
Archived from the original on 2012-
10-12. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
14. Piccolo, Cynthia M. (August 22,
2004). "Article: Shared Lives: From
the types of joining to separation
 surgeries, the issues around [sic]
conjoined twins are varied and
complex" . Medhunters.com.
Archived from the original on
August 25, 2004. Retrieved
2011-12-23.
15. "Abby & Brittany Hensel".
Extraordinary People (television
series). UK: Channel 5. 21 November
2007.
16. Hutchison, Rob. Joined for Life: Abby
& Brittany turn 16 , Advanced
Medical Productions, 2006, accessed
November 11, 2012
17. Abby and Brittany: Joined for Life ,
BBC, accessed 21 May 2013
18. Joined for Life: Abby and Brittany
Turn 16 Archived July 12, 2007, at
the Wayback Machine from
Figure8Films.tv
 19. Extraordinary People: The Twins Who
Share a Body from YouTube

Link-uri externe
Abby Hensel on IMDb
Brittany Hensel on IMDb

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Abby_and_Brittany_Hensel&oldid=92375592
0"
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