The Deaths of Violet and Daisy Hilton

The recent news about the sad deaths of Gene Hackman and his wife, indicating that they perished days apart in the same house, with Hackman, dying second, not seeking help, has an even stranger precedent in the passing of once-famous conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton.



You can read their entire story at Wikipedia. But the salient part for our purposes is this paragraph:

On January 4, 1969, after they did not report to work and attempts to reach them by telephone failed, the police were called to investigate. The twins were found dead in their home, victims of the Hong Kong flu. According to the autopsy, Daisy died first; Violet died between two and four days later.[15] Violet had not called for any help.[14]

Realistically speaking, what could Violet do? Perhaps the corpse of her sister could have been amputated safely, perhaps not. Sharing no organs with her twin, Violet might have survived. But she made a choice.