VARIOUS: 40-YEAR-OLD CONJOINED TWIN SISTERS SAY THEY WOULD NOT CONSIDER SEPARATION SURGERY AND THAT THEY LIVE HAPPY LIVES

Record ID: 640486

  • Title: VARIOUS: 40-YEAR-OLD CONJOINED TWIN SISTERS SAY THEY WOULD NOT CONSIDER SEPARATION SURGERY AND THAT THEY LIVE HAPPY LIVES
  • Date: 17th August 2002
  • Summary: (U2) UNKNOWN LOCATION, UNITED STATES (FILE) (REUTERS) SCU STILL IMAGE OF THE SISTERS WHEN THEY WERE BABIES; STILL IMAGE OF SISTERS WHEN THEY WERE IN THEIR TEENS (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: READING, PENNSYLVANIA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNKNOWN LOCATION, UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN LOCATION, NETHERLANDS
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Health,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVAF39489OKMF3CLO344Y7GODJBC
  • Story Text: While the world's media has recently been full of stories about the separation of conjoined twins, two sisters in the United States are living proof that it is possible to live long and happy lives despite the immense difficulties of being joined at the head.
    Even though it might be possible to surgically separate Lori and Reba Schappell, the 40-year-old sisters from Pennsylvania say they would never consider surgery because it would be a breach of God's will.
    Lori and Reba Schappell live a life that few people can imagine. But within a few minutes of meeting them they make it very clear that it's the life they chose to live.
    While doctors in Los Angeles talk about the prospects of a long and healthy future for recently separated Guatemalan twins Maria de Jesus Quiej Alverez and Maria Theresa, Lori and Reba believe God joined them for a purpose.
    "I believe in God full-heartedly," said Lori during an interview with Reuters at the twins' apartment in a building for the elderly in Reading, Pennsylvania.
    "That is why we are not separated. I don't believe in messing with what God created, we are all created from God in his image. He has a reason to create us this way and who am I to mess with what He made."
    Lori and Reba are joined at the skull, so where one goes the other must. Reba suffers from spina bifida, a condition that left her dependent on her sister to wheel her around on an adapted stool.
    Conjoined twins occur once in every 200,000 live births, but twins who are fused at the tops of their heads make up only about 2 percent of those.
    Both sisters, who now live off government assistance, graduated from high school and each had taken college classes but Lori says that she would choose shopping over studying any day. Lori spent 6 years working in a laundry room at a hospital but gave up the job so Reba could persue a career as a singer.
    Reba's has toured through Europe and parts of Asia, a career she said has made her life worth living.
    "I'm a country singer first," said Reba. And when asked how she handles a public life as a conjoined twin she answered. "That's my job, this is a condition. It goes with the territory but it does not rule me."
    Lori has her own dreams to fulfill: " I would like to get married," she said, but when asked if she thought her handicap would get in the way of her plans she joked, " but I'm not the only women at age forty not to have children so when it comes it comes."
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