Oldest living conjoined twins die at 62

Conjoined 40-year-old twins George, left, and Lori Schappell.
Conjoined 40-year-old twins George, left, and Lori Schappell.

The world's oldest living conjoined twins — Lori and George Schappell — have died. They were from the United States, and died at 62.

The twins were listed — and their story followed — by Guinness World Records. They died on April 7 at a hospital in Pennsylvania. They were born on Sept. 18, 1961, West Reading, Pennsylvania and both graduated from high school and took college classes.

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Their obituaries were published by a funeral home who named them as Lori L. Schappell and Dori A. Schappel, the children of Franklin G. Schappell, Perry Twp., and the late Ruth G. (Reppert) Schappell.

The twins died at exactly the age of 62 years and 202 days old, Guinness said.

The two had partially fused skulls and shared 30% of their brains along with vital blood vessels.

George had spina bifida, while Lori lived as an able-bodied adult. The siblings lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Pennsylvania and each had their own room and would alternate spending nights in each to work and preserve as much of their independence as possible, Guinness wrote.

In their obituary, the funeral home wrote that they tried to live as independently as possible with one of the siblings performing as a country singer at various gigs across the United States.

Lori was a trophy-winning bowler.

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