Physiology
The Hensel 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 attached to a shoulder blade at the back. The arm was removed, leaving the shoulder blade.
Abigail'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 Abigail's leg; and Brittany tends to stand and walk on tip-toe which has given her a significantly larger calf muscle than Abigail. The continued growth of Abigail's spine was surgically halted after Brittany prematurely stopped growing. 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.
Each of the twins 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 only by the twin on the opposite side. They are effective in cooperatively using 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—all tasks that they learned at a normal speed. Together, they can type on a computer keyboard at a normal speed and drive a car. However, their disparate heights led to difficulty in balancing a Segway, as shown in their 2012 reality series.
Read more about this topic: Abigail And Brittany Hensel
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—Ana Castillo (b. 1953)