She is her own twin: how a woman with many children with a telling surname had to prove the fact of her own motherhood (9 photos)

Lydia Fairchild, an ordinary 19-year-old girl, fell in love with a guy, Jamie Townsend. The couple got married, and the couple had three children one after another. The relationship went wrong, the husband began to cheat, and in 2006 the couple separated. An ordinary situation, in general. But she ceased to be so when Lydia poisoned herself to apply for benefits. And she found out that her children were not hers.





It was a real shock. Especially considering that the woman was carrying her fourth baby. And then an employee from the benefits department contacted her and said that a DNA test, a standard procedure to avoid fraudulent actions when applying for benefits, showed that all of Lydia’s children were not genetically hers.

The woman was called to testify, which was quite harsh, despite the pregnancy: “Who are you?”, “Where did you get the children?”, “What happened to their real mother?”



Lydia Fairchild

At the same time, the fact of Jeremy's paternity was confirmed. And the mother of the babies was genetically a completely different woman.

Fairchild was not only suspected of fraud, but also told that there was every chance of losing her children. And they can be taken away at any time, since it has been proven that she is not their mother.

What to do?





Lydia Fairchild

Lydia panicked, turned to her relatives and told them about the situation. I started collecting photos of her being pregnant. I contacted the obstetrician who delivered the baby. The doctor reassured the woman, saying that he would confirm everything in court. After all, forgery or fraud is excluded: he personally observed the birth and delivered the babies.

Unexpected help



Lydia's children

To exclude errors, DNA tests were repeated in different independent laboratories. But they all showed the same result: she is not a mother.

The lawyers to whom the shocked woman turned for help just shrugged. But still, there was one lawyer - Alan Tindell, who was imbued with Lydia’s misfortune, believed her and agreed, despite reinforced concrete arguments in the form of test results, to represent her interests in court.



Karen Keegan with her sons

Tindell studied similar cases, literally collecting information bit by bit. And he was lucky: an identical case was found. A Boston resident needed a kidney transplant several years ago. The woman's three sons wanted to help, but DNA testing, as in Fairchild's case, showed that she was not their mother. This was an opportunity.

The situation in the case of Karen Keegan was resolved by DNA testing from internal organs. Karen recently had part of her thyroid gland removed and tissue was collected for testing. In this case, the data already matches.

Chimera



Chimera

It turned out that we are talking about chimerism. The phenomenon, although rare, does occur sometimes. The term came into medicine from Greek mythology. A chimera is a prefabricated monster consisting of parts of different animals - a goat, a lion, a snake and more.

In nature, it can be caused by the following reasons:

The fusion of two eggs fertilized by different sperm. Or two embryos at the initial stage of development. As a result, different organs will have different chromosome sets. That is, this is a classic case of the absorption of one twin by another at the stage of intrauterine development.

Entry of fetal cells into maternal tissue or vice versa.

Transfer of cells to each other by heterozygous twins.

Entry and subsequent integration of foreign cells during blood transfusion or organ transplantation.

Hello mother!



The birth was approaching, and the judge ordered a bailiff to be sent to the maternity room to record the birth of the child and take samples for analysis. And, yes, the result was the same: genetically she was not the mother of the newborn.

The lawyer consulted with colleagues, studied the practice and came to the conclusion that a smear of flora from the cervical canal should be taken for examination. He showed that there are indeed two genetic sets in Lydia’s body. Most likely, the woman had a twin sister, whom she absorbed during fetal development. The unborn sister became part of Lydia's body, more precisely, the uterus. And, so to speak, she “gave birth” to all the children.



Lydia with children

If it weren’t for the meticulousness of the lawyer who found Karen’s story, everything could have ended sadly: the children, who in some way were Lydia’s nephews, could have been taken away. And the woman will be accused of forgery, fraud and put behind bars.



Still from the 2009 film "Chimera"

No more than 50 cases of chimerism have been officially recorded and made public. In fact, there are many more of them. They usually emerge after DNA analysis, as was the case with Lydia, in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination.