The Doctors at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford on Wednesday said the once formerly conjoined Costa Rican twins Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha-Arias are recovering from their Nov. 12 separation surgery.
On Tuesday, Yurelia was released from the hospital's cardiovascular intensive care unit, while Fiorella is expected to join her by the end of the week.
"Everyone's thrilled that they're progressing so well," said Gail Wright, MD, cardiovascular intensive care physician. "Moving out of intensive care is a very big step." Doctors also released the first post-surgery photo of the twins. It shows one child in a hospital bed with the girl's mother holding the second child nearby.
Doctors said Fiorella's is still recovering a bit behind her sister since her Nov. 19 return to surgery for a brief modification of her chest reconstruction and repair of her skin closure.
She also needs a couple more days for her respiratory issues to completely clear.
Yurelia's last surgery happened on Nov. 14, because she had a life-threatening congenital anomaly, known as double outlet right ventricle. This was corrected by chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery Frank Hanley.
The girls were connected at parts of their hearts and shared a liver before their successful nine-hour separation surgery earlier this month.
"It went really well," Hanley said, of the six-hour correction and reconstruction.
DORV occurs early in pregnancy when the heart is developing, Dicks said.
Frank Hanley, Chief of Pediatric, created a tunnel from the left ventricle through the right ventricle to the aorta to correct the flow of blood in Yurelia's body.
"These are two very strong little girls," lead surgeon Gary Hartman said. Their mom, Maria, and dad, Jose Luis, have remained at the girls' bedside for weeks.
The full story can be read at KNBC.com
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