Abigail & Brittany Hensel - The Twins Who Share a Body

who we are and stuff Abby and Brittany were born with just one body between them the only known surviving died catalyst conjoined twins they've spent their lives in a small close-knit community completely protected from prying eyes the girls live on a farm in Minnesota with their younger brother and sister Coty and Morgan and their mum and dad Patty and Mike as they reach 16 and on the brink of womanhood they've decided to show the world what it's really like to be joined for life it's just an ordinary Monday morning in the Hansel household having Brittany earnt morning people and I think that's primarily because they have a harder time getting to sleep at night so they do a lot of tossing and turning at night and that is pretty much destroyed every morning and so getting up in the morning isn't their favorite part of the day every moment of their lives requires the twins to cooperate with each other each action is a display of perfectly coordinated teamwork they appear to be totally in sync but that doesn't mean they always agree believe me we are totally different people Abby's mourn'd pink and girly and preppy and Brittany's more not into pink should we wear this no no I like hats and I like different color hair like pink and purple and gold hats and gold purses and weird earrings and stuff like that this is our room usually bargain with each other like if you do this I'll give you better or we take turns we take turns a lot this is our nightstand so bad those are pictures of our friends from eighth grade to describe Abby she'd be bossy and she's not as well as she used to be she used to be more outspoken um she gets irritated easily mm I don't know she's nice and she likes people it's nice to be with people and she's a big talker yeah brands become more I was spoken and she says her mind more than she's not so shy anymore she doesn't like fast things she's read she'd rather go slower and take her time she's nice and sweet and caring and loving and a good sister Abby and Brittany were born on March the 7th 1990 the fact that they were conjoined twins was a complete shock to everyone even scans had shown only one baby when I went into the hospital I was expecting one child they were telling me that when they were trying to pull them out they felt an arm and then they felt another arm and then they felt what they thought was another arm and then with pulling them out they realized that they were conjoined twins they didn't really tell me anything initially they pretty much whisked them off to the baby warmer and and I know they were calling for more help and and I just seen them busy over with the girls when the doctors came out I noticed that they were in a panic and they just came and talked to me and told me that we had twins that were together they were beautiful Abby was crying and while Britney was - Abby was really crying and I was thinking they're probably just hungry the first time I seen him just they just didn't take about a second - to fall in love with him Abby and Brittany had only a 1 in 30 million chance of living beyond the next 24 hours their survival would all depend on how their organs were configured within their tiny body Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London specializes in the most complicated twin pregnancies professor Nick Fisk has followed the case of Abby and Brittany since they were born I have never seen previously a set of surviving die careless twins so they are extraordinarily rare and they're the only ones to my knowledge alive today they do appear to have two separate hearts one in each side of the the chest and each has its own pair of lungs one on the right and one on the left but the media lung on both sides seems to be fused in the middle and then maybe as one would expect so it's consistent with an increasing degree of effusion as one moves down the body Abby and Brittany had three arms at birth and that often happened was but it was a useless midline arm that didn't function so it was removed and when they were very young one presumes the outlooks better if you have four or even three arms than if you have two because it indicates a greater degree of duplication of the upper body abiam Brittany had three and that may have something to do with why they're doing so well they just seemed to do everything on schedule you know they lifted their heads on schedule they move they smiled they ate you know everything just was working you could see him progressing every day you'd one day you'd see him grabbing onto the coffee table and the next day you'd come home and he'd be walking around it every step was not easy but they got it done - the medical world Abby and Brittany were an astonishing case confounding all expectations of die Kellis conjoined twins with their bodies so closely linked it was clear separation was out of the question so their parents got on with giving them as ordinary a life as possible but with so little knowledge of their condition there would be no guarantees conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel have mystified the medical world since they were born they share just one torso two arms and two legs although each twin controls her own side of the body nobody knows how they work their personalities make them inspirational and the things they do they never give up they keep trying anything they wanted to do they go out and do it at birth it was thought to be a miracle that the girls survived even the first 24 hours of life but as they grew it became clear nothing would stand in the way of them leading full and active lives then at the age of 12 it was discovered that they had a life-threatening condition [Music] Abbi and Brittany's rib cages were fused together and their spines were growing outwards rather than upwards the girls had to undergo a major operation to stop their lungs running out of air eventually the girls were discharged from hospital they'd gained two inches in height and were fit to live life to the full there's no physical challenge that Abby and Brittany are not prepared to tackle head-on their degree of motor coordination is really quite extraordinary is not as good as your eye it's not finely tuned but it's pretty amazing and how does that happen well there's absolutely no degree of fusion of their spinal columns that they're completely separate and we can see this in the x-ray of their pelvis here they have a single pelvis but two separate sacrum switch is the lower part of the vertebral column so I don't think anyone can explain how this happens they will be getting cues from things like skin tugging and stretching from the other one side of the body cues that they've had to learn to adapt to all their life just in the same way that a person who is blind has incredible hearing skills or a person who's deaf has incredible visual skills at lip-reading [Music] Abby and Brittany are about to undertake the ultimate test of their extraordinary skills as their 16th birthday z' approach their coming-of-age the American Way and learning to drum okay today we're taking Kody for two hours of placement testing for high school and then AB and Britt are going to their last two hours of driver's training it's so normal for me to have AB and Brett that I'm sure I overlook a lot of things that other people look at and say man maybe when people tell me something that they see is spectacular with AB and Britt that it it brings me back down to yeah they are spectacular everything that they have done from riding bike to driving a lawn mower to riding horses to swimming I never thought that driving would be an obstacle for them in fact I felt they were gonna have an advantage having four eyes looking for a car versus just two eyes a be like starting fast or Femi cuz you get there faster that's what fun riding made me nervous just because they're girls and they're talking and they got so much going on friends school just everyday stuff with him but it did make me nervous yeah I just thinking that they weren't concentrating enough when driving today I'm working with the girls is your final lesson before they take their test on Tuesday they're really pretty good their mom and dad have done a lot of work with them they'd have to maneuver together and one of the things that I noticed the first one we first went out was they were cutting their left turns a little bit for behind the wheel we had to have six hours of driving with an instructor we learned how to parallel park and I need a great parking and other things know right down here by the cars between the two cars we'll go make it a little tougher for you little further what it reverse hard to the right you get to that 45 degree angle keep going capable no straighten it hard the other way no hard as you can keep going you're doing great super job excellent even better than where I stopped and then straighten it watch this will be Abby takes over the pedals and shifter and I take over the and we will we both steer a bolster and I take over the blinker I know lights we gotta go where we're going so we know where we're going where we have to do we know what turn to take [Music] the driving is quite extraordinary but you notice that Abby controls the pedals that's one of the key things both the accelerator and the brake so her brain controls that side of it and that seems fine it's not quite clear which one's visual inputs going into the driving the steering wheel but yet each has control of either side this verifies the fact they've completed their six hours which is required by the state and then navigation yeah yeah this card along with your permits you'll need and that's yours thank you Abby and Brittany are already but the state hasn't decided yet if they'll be taking one driving test or two they decide to be on the safe side and take two sets of ID photos the girls go to the local high school just a few miles from their home over the years the teachers and other pupils have had to learn how to treat them as two separate students with different interests and abilities [Music] have a seat one more time I understand you're all right don't be they are very very different Abby is I would say a little more outgoing certainly she's more able to question and to demand answers and attention both in class how they describe them yeah so how Mayella described and how I find myself probably joking with her more a little bit he's so old he's gone senile go with Brittany I think she's a little more quiet little more reserved thinks through some things maybe not quite as as a sort of certainly more contemplative in that more practical classes the school has agreed that the twins only need to submit one piece of work between them but in English they're treated completely separately and so we came across the plan of that they would write their own papers together and tests and quizzes any kind of and class participation would be done and graded separately they do answer things differently they do think differently both of them always have always had separate grades the girls have faced many challenges in life but making friends isn't one of them your social butterflies they have been since they started preschool I think when they're the happiest is when they're they have their friends oh yeah anytime that they're involved with their friends makes them happy so I guess what I'm having a party for my graduation you're invited [Music] guess I'm a little more protective 1 if they want to go down downtown sometimes worry a little bit that if they did get picked on or anything like that I just don't want to hear anything negative their social group is so protective of them that they all watch out for him and if they see even somebody that might be looking at them they hover around them and they they try and protect them and and they're comfortable with that and if their friends are doing that makes them feel good that they would be protecting them while the girls are most comfortable at school their least favorite place is the doctor's surgery today is their routine 16 year old medical their GP dr. joy West Adal was at their birth and has followed the girls development all their lives but even she has very little information to go on girl the family have always refused to have any non-essential tests carried out on the girls despite great interest from the medical profession it's been enjoying your summer we're all set well let's talk to Westar all notes you guys are here while they are unique the family wants to treat them as though they're just like everyone else we're obviously making sure that they're fit for sports they're fit for their activities at school that they're able to engage in social behaviors those are not unique to the girls however because they have two hearts lungs circulatory systems that are conjoined I'm looking to make sure they're not developing premature high blood pressure respiratory problems are they prone to more infections so there's a little bit more work but I have to be mindful of the family's wishes not to get too involved in that over the years dr. West Odell has been astonished and mystified by what the girls have achieved the process of their ability to come together is fascinating for me as a as a primary care doctor because above the waist they seem to function independently and yet they can clap even though one controls one arm and the other controls the other I ask them periodically what they feel and since one girl cannot sense touching on the other girl's arm and vice versa so it's very interesting yes what I don't know about Abby and Brittany is exactly how the pathophysiology works we we guesstimate what's happening in their bodies and it would be nice to predict their future everyone asks how long you know what do you expect for the future for these girls well I expect them to live healthy normal happy lives but it would be sort of nice to know you know how that circulatory system is going to play what I like to do lots of testing yeah would the parents want that done would the children want that done no there would be a long queue of scientists with really very modern techniques of imaging brain and nervous system function who would love to find out what one feels when you do something to one's arm how the music centres are organized sense of space and movement etc and you can do those now with very clever brain scans that we look for subtle alterations in blood flow or in the metabolic and in metabolism within the brain that shows us which particular centers are activated now this is these techniques are making huge strides in advancing our knowledge of how the brain works and in particularly in developing treatments for various diseases as a result this is a highly unusual situation and one does have to be cautious here that there is a danger of medical science being driven largely by curiosity at a clear cost to the Fabian brittany's big day finally arrives on my 16th birthday we got up and we went to get our driver's license the day we went for their written permit we weren't sure what they were gonna have them do if they were gonna have him take one test or two tests they only didn't take any special things for us they just made us take the test twice they wanted to do their drivers tests the day they turn 16 even though I said you know if you failed you want that on your birthday making legal history in the state of Minnesota the twins take their two tests and hope for the best two tests also means two chances to fail but for these girls failure isn't an option [Music] [Music] I've talked with that being brittany about you know what happens if if they are pulled over if they would each get a ticket or maybe Abby would get the ticket if they were speeding being she has her foot on the accelerator I don't know I know we'll just have to see what happens when it hopefully doesn't ever [Music] because the twins take their driving triumph in their stride but others are still fascinated by how they pulled it off so your windshield wipers and cruise control and your radio and defogger gas and the brake I assume that you'll be freaking out policemen across the state [Applause] [Music] [Music] now that Abby and Brittany have reached their 16th birthday their lives are entering an exciting but potentially more difficult phase definitely there's 16 now so I'm hearing things come out of teenage mouths that surprised me sometimes but deep down when the day is over I know they love me and and this is Brittany's driver's license conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel are living the American dream they're 16 and have just passed their driving tests and they're enjoying every moment of their new freedom [Music] you like to drive when we know I can't say it no just keep going no a bad part about driving is when we turn all the way all brother we like driving when they can put wrong wrong that's the word okay start over stop okay we like driving when we roll all the windows down turn the bass and the trouble up really loud so the car shakes and you can hear the bass really well when you're listening to rap that's our favorite part they gradually increase their speed as they got comfortable they used to drive 30 miles an hour for the first few times at it and gradually built up their speed and we're comfortable with it knowing they had gained the control of the car now I've got to remind them to watch their speed before I had to tell them to speed up fun Christina's these drivers Christina and we tried to hit all the dead animals on the road those bumpy the twins family know that there are two people with different personalities tastes needs and desires and as they grow up those differences are becoming more obvious that's an ugly coffee table I like it Abby's very feisty I have no thoughts I have to go Abby always likes to be the boss of the whole house boss of Kody don't put that on line Chloe I don't want that on there Wow boss with Morgan why should I fire on the carpet with those get down he likes to tell me how I should do things and ah the concert starts at 7:00 hi Brittany um easygoing easy to talk to but is finding out that she's got a mind of her own also do you mind where she's pulling now control every now and then are you trying to my I told you to tell them that you're popular now and I always tell her I'll Brittany you've discovered you've got vocal chords and you can yell at me now so Brittany is almost like the firecracker of the two right now can I um divert hair to tone yeah I want to we've had a couple years of teen teens for them already and actually I hope that I'm right I think it's getting better without extensive tests to establish exactly how Abby and Brittany's brains and bodies work theories about their remarkable connection are confined to what the girls are able to explain and a certain amount of guesswork there are still times when I think jeez how did they figure that out our house it's just amazing how they did that oh they could reach over and itch somebody's mosquito by eight and yet not feel that sensation because Abby pretty much feels what what's on her side of the body and Brittany feels what's on her side of the body beyond the physical coordination there seems to be a psychological bond between the girls which goes even deeper allowing them to finish each other's sentences or jointly compose an email with very little discussion out loud but where ima writing emails we normally just say I am or not we are for some reason I don't know why but when we type but we say what we're gonna say out loud likely speak it and then we type it and it's like we have different paint on something would be like a bee says this in Brittany says that hello and it's not just the girls in their family who can't fully explain this incredible connection this occurred very early after conception the nervous system will have been developing only a few weeks later and I presume sort of great plasticity involved nervous connections that don't normally exist in any of us but you can't really have motor fibers going down one spine and back up the other one or you shouldn't be able to we don't really know I suspect they have some greater form of perception of sensation on the other hand other half of the body then perhaps we realized touches a fairly crude one but they may just have some sense of proprioception where that other limb is etc that enables them to accomplish these extraordinary feats [Music] the girl's parents are often asked if they could have given Abby and Brittany greater individuality by pursuing the idea of separation with the issue separation for Evan Britt initially as babies we were told kind of unseparable we went with that and went with that you know now with more surgeries being done with other conjoined twins you kind of wonder did we make the right decision when I think of what separating would have been for them to have another half a body somehow put back on them artificially which to me still would have required many many surgeries so you know did we make the right decision I'm going with that Dave went with that and so I guess I'm gonna say we made the right decision until now separation has been an impossibility but if it were possible in the future do the girls think they'd be better off apart no there's never we never wish we were separated because then we won't get to do all the things that we can do the play southpaw and meet new people we wouldn't have been able to do that and run and we would go to sports and stuff like that so and we don't know any other way so we have two minds with one vigorous and healthy body and to separate them equally so they're both survived would involve yes a separate mind and personality but each body having one arm one leg half a pelvis being grossly disabled and lots of problems with mobility and independent so in general it's considered a no-brainer and not ethical individuality in these girls is going to be a hard concept for us to embrace because we each have our own person these two girls have always grown up together so their individuality while they're considered separate people is always interlinked and intertwined so it may not be a concept that we can understand [Music] this summer we like to go on the beach and then you have to work a lot and swim and chop and his friends school is finally over Abby and Brittany have a long hot summer stretching in front of them Abby wants to go at Disneyworld cuz you've been there before everybody doesn't wanna go to dinner because he thinks it's too many whatever what does that mean specifically like to make people yeah why don't you like that cause I just old I don't like being a people a lot of people the debate about where to go on holiday will have to be resolved later in the meantime the girls distract themselves with some retail therapy fashion tip number one by Abby and Brittany Hansel you have to wear a nice church with good pants not good pants with t-shirts pit number two actually do your hair a little bit don't just start up and point out every day or leave it down and ponytail we have ten t-shirts tip number three don't wear black with brown [Music] maybe going shopping Abby and Brittany love shopping but finding the right clothes isn't always straightforward I got this in green the biggest challenge for them when they go shopping our shirts I'm pants have never been an issue shoes has never been an issue because they love shoes but anyway so the tops are the biggest issue I got this procedure Patty has come up with a creative solution to the problems Kim Karlsen is the girls dressmaker by taking their clothes to her they can choose whatever they like and have them tailored to fit their unique body in the Front's of their garments we need to make sure they're spaced closer in the front further on their backs and so I make sure that I cut away as little as I can for the back and a little bit more in the front and then we always have to put a piece between the necks to allow for a little more space that's got to be so it doesn't dig into their necks as much right there this particular one that girls want to try something different they want to slice it and tie it and make it a little shorter in one of their regular displays of teamwork and without even a word between them the girls perform the amazing feat of tying perfect knots down the side of their new t-shirt try it out see if it's too tight just stretch up yeah you're too weird right I don't think I will be is that gonna be okay the length if once we have it yeah okay that's cute girls good idea [Music] the hensel's family holiday is booked they're going to Texas where people don't know them and where they're bound to be stairs for Brittany in particular it will be a testing time but they're going to stay with someone who has a unique understanding of their situation Tamra hi conjoined twins a couple years ago eight or nine years ago and and her girls died about two hours after they were born and she saw us on TV so she called the radio station and they gave us they heard our number that we've been friends with her ever since when I do see a bee in Brittany I reflect back upon the time when I gave birth to my own daughters and truly how their lives would have been together it makes me sad to remember back to my own children and then what their lives would have been like and I feel Abby and Brittany have showed me how to be positive in life they've given me strength from within that I didn't even know I had mic can't get enough time off work for the trip so the girl's best friend Christy is going along in his place she'll be good moral support leaving the familiarity of their hometown is a stressful experience for Abby and Brittany who brace themselves for the unwelcome attention of complete strangers this curiosity is something they're getting used to but it doesn't make it any easier people sometimes can be kind of stupid they take pictures of us we were on vacations or follow us we don't mind when people ask questions that's better than taking pictures or being mean about it we're very nice if you just come up to me and talk to us we don't mind questions and we hate after the hate when people take pictures of us and try to video cameras and we will throw that about it I may get them embarrassed [Music] tamra is determined to give the girls the trip of a lifetime and she decides to turn their situation to their advantage [Music] she manages to get them special pitch side passes for a major league baseball game but just before the game starts the plan backfires a news cameraman there to follow the game turns his camera on the girls they let him film them but it spoils their day Abby and Brittany number one I guess have feelings there's something that really annoys them and that's when people feel they have the privilege to just turn around snap a photo of them without asking them or even talking with them or it drives them crazy because they feel like they're being violated [Music] these two balls the twins have faced enough stairs in their lives not to let it ruin the whole trip but it's a sharp reminder of what lies ahead of them facing adulthood they're fiercely guarded privacy will soon be under threat Abby and Brittany have just two more years at high school before they must decide whether to leave the protective environment of their hometown in Minnesota they've had 16 years to adapt to their unique situation but how will the wider world react to two completely separate human beings joined within one body we might want to go into photography child's development first stuff with kids interior designing architecture or fashion whatever they decide to do in life the outside world will have to adapt itself to Abby and Brittany but I'm treating no you know are they going to be hired as one or as two are they going to be able to share salaries or do they might you know all of those things I think yet are to be determined and so you know I'm taking the approach on wait-and-see but I I certainly am looking forward to be a part of that rise for another two years we haven't thought that much about where they would go to college depending on the day Brittany has said she's going to be as far away as possible we know he doesn't want to be too far away so they may you know we just don't know that yet the girls lives have been a series of questions but as they become young women they're being asked increasingly personal ones about their private lives you know I hear them and their girlfriends talk about guys but they probably aren't gonna be sharing that with me right now who they may have a crush on or what they're feeling but I'm sure they do I just the way I see them interact the whole world doesn't need to know what we're dating or what weird gonna do whatever admin bring I made comments before that they'd like to be a mother or you know how many kids are they gonna have kind of thing that is probably something that could work because those organs do work for them I guess we haven't went into too much discussion about it because it isn't an issue right now yeah we're gonna be moms we haven't thought about how it's being mom's gonna work yeah we're just 16 we don't need to think about that right now the physiology of a body is very complex especially when it comes to female reproduction it's not simply organs but it's regulated by several centers in the brain we have two brains that we're working with that have to regulate the ability to have a child I suspect everything will go normally but that only time will tell there's no example of female die careful as twins marrying or reproducing now you know it's tricky do they marry two boys or one if it's one they married to people with separate identities is that bigamy or not or do they married to which makes more sense if you respect their identity separately round 2 though if marriages don't last and one wants to get divorced you it allows them to choose separate people the ones if one gets divorced and then you'll stop with three of you one wanting to be single but not and it raises all sorts of questions about are they one or two people and society really has no basis for ruling on this [Music] as a first step into adulthood Abby and Brittany have got a babysitting job and they seemed to have a special gift with young children who see them for who they are rather than what we babysit for a family of two kids four days a week and we babysit for a family of three kids every so often during the summer we like kids a lot we like to babysit kids and we needed a job when the kids met us you're handsome when the kids met us for the first time they didn't seem bothered by us or scared of us or some whatever yeah I think people need to look at a being Brittany as through the eyes of a child and accept them for what you see and quit trying to figure out how does this work how does that work how do you do this how do you do that who got to pick this who do and just know that it works because you can see that we may never know how having Brittany work but isn't it great that they can every part of their life is cooperating with each other to make it our goal the best thing about being conjoined twins is there's always someone there to talk to and you're never alone [Music] and there's more from the extraordinary people series with a profile of Derrick Puccini our blind pianist with learning difficulties the music genius over on five life in just a tick next here on five Prison Break

Channel: Documeaning

Views: 42,197,329

Rating: 4.6896229 out of 5

Keywords: conjoined, twins

Id: K57IcN9DWXo

Length: 45min 29sec (2729 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 23 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/tuscabam]

I’ve always wondered how any kind of dating/romance/sex would work with these two. Like if one girl had a boyfriend and the other hated him, would sex be like rape to one of them?

Also, what about taking a poo. What if one girl says hey I need to shit but the other says nah I’ll hold it a while, we’re busy. Who wins? If one starts pushing it out could the other suck it back in just to be a dick? I would love to have a long conversation with them but I’m afraid every question would be deemed inappropriate.

[u/milkman3000]

Went to school with them. Good people. Very kind and sweet. They teach now.

[u/CharmedConflict]

Hey, that's my show. :)

Well, I worked on it anyways. Very sweet girls with an incredible life.

[u/Chris_Thrush]

Hard to imagine for me what their lives are like. They must have incredible compassion and love for each other.

[u/joeschmoe86]

"Stomach aches, however, are felt by only the twin on the opposite side."

Or, as I read it:

"I'm mad at my sister, so I'm going to drink a quart of milk and chase it with a shot of lemon juice and a can of sardines."

[u/DirtyChito]

A friend of mine met them once. She was working in box office for a show and they came by. I remember her telling me, "Thank god they decided not to see it. I don't know if I should have charged them for one ticket or two."

[u/croutonianemperor]

They would make great hunters. 2 sets of eyes and ears with half the foot noise.

[u/ryanmuller1089]

That’s pretty incredible. Some serious questions here (I will be watching this later so they might be answered): Given they have two names, does this mean they Have two separate SSN and birth certificates? If so does this mean that something like college could charge them for two tuitions?

[u/ashamaniq]

Amazing how leg coordination works for them, I’ve seen them on tv and walking and running is effortlessly... now a serious question who’s in charge of the hand that wipes the butt?