Sam and John Fetters, 19, are identical twins at opposite ends of the autism spectrum.
Sam is a sophomore at Amherst College who plans to double major in history and political science. In his free time, he runs marathons.
John attends a special school, struggles to form sentences, and likes to watch Teletubbies and Sesame Street.
Two brothers. Same genes. Different flavors of autism.
Both John and Sam were born with anatomical anomalies that required surgery.
Sam had a hernia that needed repair, but it was surgery that could wait until he was 5. John had a hole in his heart that was affecting his growth and had to be fixed when he was still an infant.
Sam's surgery went smoothly. But John developed an infection in the incision surgeons had made in his chest.
The infection was from drug-resistant staph bacteria. So John went back to the hospital and spent a month on powerful antibiotics pumped directly into a vein near his heart.
Quite interesting article.
Fascinating. Thanks