Recently medically separated from her twin sister the health of
baby Chen Jingni is continuing to improve reported officials at
Fudan University Children's Hospital on Wednesday.
"Jingni is recovering and we will start to feed her some sugared
water," said Wang Yi, deputy president of the hospital. "Helping to
get her digestive system to function is currently the most
important issue."?
Jingni, the stronger of the 11-month-old conjoined twins is now
able to breathe without assistance. She is under the dedicated care
of 20 medical staff at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where she's
been since last Thursday.
"We've used the most advanced equipment and medicines available
as well as the best medical experts to save Jingni," said Wang.
"But it's still too early to say when she will be moved out of the
ICU."
Earlier this week surgeons transplanted skin to cover the wound
left following the operation to separate her from sister Hu
Jingxuan. The procedure was carried out with the approval of mother
Chen Yanfeng.
Jingxuan, who had a serious congenital heart disease, died of
multi-organ failure on Monday afternoon just over 90 hours after
the operation.
The twin girls, from the countryside near Taizhou in east
China's Zhejiang Province, were connected from the
chest to lower pelvis and shared many internal organs.
Prenatal checks found the twins closely connected four months
before they were born. Due to their critical condition the girls
were sent to the children's hospital for treatment soon after their
birth last August.
The tragic life of the twins moved many people and the Taizhou
Business Association in Shanghai donated 260,000 yuan (US$32,500)
for the surgery.
(China Daily July 13, 2006)