GEORGE and Lori Schappell have passed away at the age of 62.
The conjoined twins defied medical expectations that said they would not survive past their 30s.
Who were conjoined twins George and Lori Schappell?
Lori and George Schappell were born on September 18, 1961, in Pennsylvania.
They had partially fused skulls and shared vital blood vessels as well as 30% of their brain, Guinness World Records reported.
George, who was four inches shorter due to spina bifida, was wheeled around by Lori using an adaptive wheeled stool.
They both graduated from a public high school and took college classes.
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George went along with Lori and worked in a hospital laundry.
Throughout the nineties, George had a successful music career in the States and won an LA Music Award for Best New Country Artist.
Lori says: “My life was working in a laundry room while George’s career took us travelling all over the world, to perform in Japan and Europe.
“It was such different extremes, but we supported each other the whole time.”
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Lori gave up her job in 1996 so that George could continue his music singer.
Despite being joined to each other, the pair lived as independently as possible.
They lived in a two-bedroom flat and were able to practise separate hobbies and shower individually.
Over the years, they appeared in many documentaries and talk shows.
In a 1997 documentary, they were asked if they wished to be separated, to which George replied: “Absolutely not. My theory is: why fix what is not broken?”
George, who was born Dori, came out as a transgender male in 2007.
The pair became the first same-sex conjoined twins to identify as different genders, Guinness World Records reported.
What does it mean to be a conjoined twin?
CONJOINED twins are twins born with their bodies physically connected.
Such twins develop after an early embryo only partially separates to create two individual fetuses.
Their condition is usually discovered early in pregnancy with a prenatal ultrasound.
Conjoined twins occur once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
About 70 percent of conjoined twins are female, and most are stillborn.
Most are connected at the chest and abdomen – but others can be connected at the head, hips, pelvis, legs, or genitalia.
Conjoined twins often share one or more of their internal organs, which impacts survival rates and the success of separation surgery.
Twins with separate sets of organs are more likely to survive than those who share.
George discussed his decision to come out with The Sun in 2011 after the siblings vowed to “continue living life to the full”.
He said: “I have known from a very young age that I should have been a boy.”
He added: “It was so tough, but I was getting older and I simply didn’t want to live a lie.
“I knew I had to live my life the way I wanted.”
George did not have a sex change but dressed and introduced himself as a man.
Lori reportedly had a number of boyfriends and was engaged, but tragically her fiance died in a traffic accident before they could marry.
When did conjoined twins George and Lori Schappell die?
Lori and George passed away on April 7, 2024, at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital.
The cause of death has not been detailed.
The pair defied medical predictions that they wouldn’t live past 30.
They were 62 at the time of their death. Lori said in an interview when they turned 50: “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong.”
Who are the oldest conjoined twins alive today?
In 2015, Lori and George became the oldest living conjoined twins who were born female.
They took the record of Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova, who passed away at the age of 53 in 2003.
It is not immediately clear who will now take the title of oldest living conjoined twins.
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The oldest documented conjoined twins were Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 68.
Eng and Chang Bunker, known as the “Siamese Twins” in the 19th century circus lived to the age of 63.
