Conjoined Twins Car Seat

We were approached by Erin Herrin in 2002 and were asked if we could help build a car seat for her conjoined twins. Kendra and Maliyah shared a set of legs and some organs, but two separate beautiful children from the waste up. One day driving home from a doctors appointment, Erin was pulled over and the police man gave her a lecture about how she cant put two babies in one car seat. She explained the circumstances to the police officer and this started the idea of how to place conjoined twins securely and safely in a car seat. After many different ideas on how to modify the car seat and doing as little as possible to the integrity and original design from the manufacture, we decided to cut the seat down the middle in the back and place an adjustable piece of plastic behind the backrest to secure it. This allowed for the seat to be opened up wider as the girls grew and needed more room to fit into the car seat. I learned early on to Make it Adjustable or Make it Again... This has become our main thought as we create anything at UCAT. We also added some straps and buckles to make it as safe as possible in case they were in an accident. In the end I feel that we didn't weaken the car seat too much from what the manufacture had designed it for. I am sure they would disagree. Unfortunately we did not take any pictures of the car seat or the girls strapped into the car seat. There is one picture of them after their separation as they had outgrown the seat on their website.
Early this year we were contacted by another family from Arizona asking if we could create a car seat for their conjoined twins Emma and Taylor. As UCAT only works with citizens of Utah we ran this project through a group of volunteers from the Utah chapter of the TETRA Society of North America. This is a group of engineers that volunteer their talents and time to figure out solutions for assistive technology for individuals in the western states. These twins are joined at the sternum and required a car seat in which they could lay down. They do not have the head strength to sit up so the family asked for a car seat that would lay them down. After a couple prototypes using a couple different materials we decided to use 1/4" ABS plastic. We work alot with this plastic because it can be heated and shaped. In the long run, it was actually a very simple design that was a flat surface with sides to keep the girls safe and comfortable. We then added straps that would attach over the shoulders, around their torso and around their hips. The family tells me that the seat has worked out very well and there were only slight adjustments that they needed to make. Once the girls are stronger and albe to sit up better, we hope to make them a car seat that will allow them to sit up.
TETRA wrote a story in their Summer edition of their GIZMO newsletter.

Conjoined twins carseat