Double Boy

From the chest down, Ernie Defort, 12, of Winnipeg was two boys. Ever since he was born, Ernie had carried around a repulsive parasitic growth on his lower chest.* It consisted of two extra arms, an extra abdomen, an extra pelvis, two extra legs, an extra liver. Ernie used to have an extra pair of kidneys, but they were removed when he was two years old.

The parasite was actually Ernie's imperfect twin, the result of incomplete division of embryonic cells before Ernie was born. Imperfect twinning sometimes results in scarcely noticeable effects (a baby may be born with a small tumor containing teeth, hair, etc., showing that a twin was begun but not completed), or in Siamese twins.

At two, Ernie was exhibited for a while at the Conklin shows (Canada's traveling carnival chain). They put him in a glass crib under the care of a special nurse.

Every summer he went on exhibition.

Every winter he went to school, where he did well at his studies and in sports.

By the time his parents took him to Europe in 1937, Ernie wanted to be rid of his deformity, even if it did earn his living.

But European doctors shook their heads.

An operation would kill Ernie, they said.

Mayo Clinic doctors were more courageous. So was Ernie. To pay for the operation, he made a last appearance at the Canadian National Exposition, where he was billed as "Len and Ernie, the two boys with a single head."

Last week the delicate operation was over. It took Dr. Henry William Mayerding two hours to perform. Ernie was back at school in Winnipeg. Len was somewhere among the Mayo's pickled souvenirs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.