Connected for Life
Description
Connected for Life: Emily and Jim Stark didn’t know the odds stacked against them and their unborn girls. They knew only that they wanted their babies.
Identical twins joined in utero are called conjoined twins, a rare phenomenon that happens once in 200,000 live births. Between 40 percent and 60 percent of conjoined twins are stillborn, and 35 percent survive only a day, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center website. No one knows why 70 percent of conjoined twins are girls or why it even happens, for that matter. One theory suggests that the fertilized egg only partially splits. Another maintains that the egg splits normally but stem cells in one twin seek out similar stem cells in the other, connecting their lives, usually with tragic consequences.
Details
Client: Colorado View Magazine
Date: Winter 2011
View: Read Article
A Decade Later
A decade later, I asked the girls what they remember about being connected. “I remember my dad leaning over with both of us when he had to pick something up,” Lexi says. “I saw a movie about it once,” Syd says. That’s about all they can recall.
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