The Formerly conjoined twins are back at home in Costa Rica
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Two-year-old twin girls that were formerly conjoined at the chest and abdomen are back at home in Costa Rica.
Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha-Arias were separated by surgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford in November and flew back home today.
The girls arrived in the Bay Area in July and began receiving weekly injections of sterile salt water into balloons placed under their skin. The procedure stretched the skin to compensate for the holes surgeons cut into their abdomens.
After the separation surgery, Yurelia needed follow-up heart surgery to correct some deformities. After the operations, her heart started to function normally.
Researchers estimate the incidence of conjoined twins to be between 1 in 30,000 to 1 in 200,000 worldwide.
