Abigail and Brittany Hensel are conjoined twins with a medical condition called, Dicephalic Parapagus.
They are fused together at the torso, and share one body.
At birth, doctors told their parents they wouldn’t live for more than a few hours—miraculously they are now full-grown adults.
For their entire lives—from the time they were infants, through childhood, through the difficult teen years, and through to today—the twins have had to struggle to overcome many challenges.
These extraordinary conjoined twins are making major headway in their lives as they enter early-adulthood. They are learning to tolerate one another, work together as two individuals, but as one body.
They share the same world spending all their days together—living a unique life as conjoined twins.
Abby and Brittany are planning the next chapter of their lives as part of a new reality show.
The Hensels are believed to be one of only a very few set of dicephalus twins in history, who have survived infancy.
The young ladies just graduated from Bethel University in Minnesota.
In the first episode of their new show, the twins celebrate their 22nd birthday, graduate from Bethel University in Minnesota, and prepare themselves for job interviews, as they enter adult life.
They lived a quiet life with their family in Minnesota.
When the Hensel twins were born on March 7, 1990, in Minnesota, doctors warned their parents Patty, a registered nurse, and Mike, a carpenter and landscaper, that they should prepare themselves for the worst: that the girls were unlikely to survive the night. The girls have fought to live and survived.
They have had to learn to adapt to one another’s tastes and personalities. Abigail the livewire liked orange juice for breakfast, while Brittany, the happy-go-lucky one in the family, would only drink milk.
The young ladies passed their driving test on their 16th birthday, with each twin using one arm to control the steering wheel
With two spines, two hearts, two oesophagi, two stomachs, three kidneys, two gallbladders, four lungs, one liver, one ribcage, a shared circulatory system and partially shared nervous systems, these twins are quite simply—extraordinary.
However, from the waist down, all organs, including the intestine, bladder and reproductive organs, are shared.
Doctors were astonished at their ability to coordinate with one another in order to play the piano as one, where Abigail would play the right hand treble keys, and Brittany the left hand bass keys.
The twins also love taking part in sports such as bowling, volleyball, cycling, softball and swimming.
Their mother Patty, conceded that driving might have been a problem for the girls, “I don’t know what would happen if they got pulled over for speeding. Would they each get a ticket or just Abby because it’s her foot on the accelerator?” That is a fair question.
The girls attended a private church school. They are well-loved and supported by their peers, who treat them no differently from anyone else.
The twins are distinctly individual. They have hand-made tops with two different necklines to reflect their different personalities and styles. They have pants with two different colors on either leg to reflect their individual tastes, and occasionally they wear different shoes on either foot!
The twins display an astonishing sense of coordination, each using one arm to perform tasks, including playing the piano and sports.
The Hensel girls are the rarest form of conjoined twins.
Only once have the twins talked about separation—in childhood—when Abigail became bored and restless after Brittany fell ill with pneumonia and was confined to bed.
Brittany never wants to be separated from her twin sister, and cried terribly when the subject was brought up. Abigail reassured her that everything was fine and that they’d never be parted.
