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The 2-year old formerly conjoined twin girls who were separated by surgery Nov. 12 at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto are continuing to make progress in their recovery, hospital officials announced today.

Conjoined twins have a 50-60 percent survival rate after undergoing separation surgery, doctors said before surgery, but Yurelia and Fiorella Rocha-Arias are making significant progress in their recovery.

"Everyone is thrilled that they're progressing so well," said Gail Wright, a cardiovascular intensive care unit physician. "Moving out of intensive care is a very big step."

Yurelia was moved from the cardiovascular intensive care unit to intermediate intensive car bed yesterday and Fiorella is expected to join her by the end of the week.

After the separation surgery, Yurelia underwent additional surgery Nov. 14 to repair a heart congenital heart defect. Fiorella had additional surgery Nov. 19 for a modification of her chest reconstruction.

The girls from Costa Rica had been joined at the chest and abdomen since birth.

"We are all very upbeat about the girls' futures," Wright said.

"All in all, there really have been very few surprises in this case and the girls' recovery is on track," Gary Hartman, lead surgeon during the Nov. 12 separation surgery, said.

-- Don Kazak