This was on Discovery Health and was speaking of a very rare phenomenon where a woman was a Chimera.
When she was conceived, the two zygotes that would have otherwise formed fraternal twins, actually completely fused together. When she was born, she was born fully female (as both "twins" were female, luckily). This women went on to give birth to two children, and when a paternity test was done, it was discovered that the father of her children, was indeed, the father, but that she was NOT the biological mother.
She was risking losing her children, because the courts did not see how this was possible, nor the DNA lab doing the tests.
It turns out that when they took DNA samples from different parts of her body, they had a different "footprints", and with added research, it was discovered she was a Chimera.
This is an amazing story, anyone that gets the opportunity to watch it, as it repeats alot, please do. This falls under the catagory, "Just when you think you've heard it all...."
when I see cases like the boy whose skin fell off, and there was another baby that was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome (that poor baby didn't even look human), and this is where I question our ability to make virtually any infant survive no matter what the birth defect.
I don't consider these babies 'heroic" because they are able to go through 20 surgeries or painful treatments, when you are an infant, what choice do you have?
I wonder if God had it right the first time, when the majority of these babies use to not survive at all. Years and years of living with extreme pain every day of your life, that is no life at all.
"the boy whose skin fell off" was actually a 33 year old man. He had no other physical abnormality. I forget the actual name of his disorder but basically the rate of epidermis turned over too fast. he started life as a healthy newborn.
yes i did see it. as a matter of fact, i seen it today in biology class. i was sooo amazed by it. im guessing the professor showed it because were talking about zygots(spell check) and the whole reproduction thing. any ways, i tried going to discovery health to find it but i couldnt. can u give me specific details on how to retrive it please and thank you!!!
medsurgnurse, RN
401 Posts
"the boy whose skin fell off" was actually a 33 year old man. He had no other physical abnormality. I forget the actual name of his disorder but basically the rate of epidermis turned over too fast. he started life as a healthy newborn.