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)