conjoined twins

[dozeydo]

My pupils were talking about a set of twins who had 2 heads, arms and legs but separate internal organs. eachtwin operates the limbs on their own side of the body. The children wanted to know what would happen to the surviving twin if the other died. what do people think?

[warpig1]

I presume they normally die within a few hours of each as they would usually have shared organs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_and_Eng_Bun ker

[dozeydo]

I caught part of this programme on TV and I thought it said that their organs were separate. If so, would the 2nd twin die so soon?

[sddsddean]

I assume you are talking about the tv prog on last Monday night about the American girls (now 16). They mentioned about whether they should have seperated them, but doctors and parents decided not to as each twin would have had one arm, one leg and half a pelvis and thus be severely disabled. As it is, they each have control of their side of the body, but as they have refused to be 'examined', the docs have no idea how they manage to walk, run, clap, tie knots etc with no difficulty at all. They have both just passed their driving tests and have one licence each, although they both have to drive at the same time (doing half the controls each). It was an extremely interesting programme.

[dozeydo]

Thanks, sddsddean - I couldn't remember the programme! But what if one dies?

[ugly_bob]

I wouldn't imagine the other would survive for long either. Even if they have separate organs, the parts that have died will start to decompose and cause major problems for the live twin