She Was Her Own Twin

October 25

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DNA Said She Wasn’t Their Mom — Until Doctors Discovered She Was Her Own Twin

Imagine giving birth to your children… and then being told by science they aren’t yours.

That’s exactly what happened to Lydia Fairchild, a 26-year-old mother from Washington State.

In 2002, while applying for public assistance, she was asked to take a routine DNA maternity test — standard procedure to verify family relationships.

The results were shocking: no genetic match between Lydia and her two children.

The kids’ father, Jamie Townsend, was confirmed as their biological dad, but Lydia’s DNA didn’t match either child. Authorities immediately suspected welfare fraud, believing she was trying to claim benefits for someone else’s kids.

Her nightmare grew worse when prosecutors sought to remove her children and charge her with deception.

To prove her innocence, Lydia agreed to undergo DNA testing during the birth of her third child — under court supervision, with doctors and officials present. Yet even then, the new baby’s DNA results said she wasn’t the mother.

That’s when her attorney, Alan Tindell, remembered reading about a strange medical case — Karen Keegan, a Boston woman whose story had been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Keegan was diagnosed with tetragametic chimerism, a rare condition where two embryos fuse early in development, creating one person with two sets of DNA.

Scientists decided to test Lydia’s cervical tissue, hair follicles, and internal cells. The breakthrough came when DNA from her reproductive tissues matched her children — proving beyond doubt that she had conceived and given birth to them.

Lydia was, quite literally, her own twin. Her body contained two genetic profiles:

One from her own DNA (found in her blood and skin).

Another from the “vanished twin” she had absorbed in the womb — the one responsible for her children’s DNA.

Once this was confirmed, the fraud case was dropped. Lydia’s ordeal not only cleared her name but also transformed how scientists and courts view genetic testing and identity.

Her story has since been featured in documentaries and medical journals, highlighting that DNA — the gold standard of truth — can sometimes tell two stories at once.

Fact: Human chimerism is incredibly rare, with fewer than 100 confirmed cases worldwide. It can occur naturally or, in rare cases, after organ or bone marrow transplants.