Career
This resulted in Fairchild"s being taken to court for fraud for claiming benefits for other people"s children or taking part in a surrogacy scam. Hospital records of her prior births were disregarded. This witness was to ensure that blood samples were immediately taken from both the child and Fairchild.
Two weeks later, deoxyribonucleic acid tests indicated that she was not the mother of that child either.
A breakthrough came when a lawyer for the prosecution heard of Karen Keegan, a human chimera in New England, and suggested the possibility to the Fairchild"s lawyer, Alan Tindell, who then found an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about Keegan. He realised that Fairchild"s case might also be caused by chimerism.
The deoxyribonucleic acid of Fairchild"s children matched that of Fairchild"s mother to the extent expected of a grandmother. Fairchild was carrying two different sets of deoxyribonucleic acid, the defining characteristic of a chimera.