Yes! Here's the update:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020808/ts_nm/life_twins_dc_29
Separated Twin Opens Eyes Overnight in LA Hospital Thu Aug 8, 3:00 PM ET
By Deena Beasley
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A one-year-old Guatemalan girl who spent the first year of life joined at the head to her twin briefly fluttered her eyes overnight after being taken off sedatives, doctors said early Thursday.
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Maria de Jesus Quiej-Alvarez and her twin Maria Teresa remain in critical condition with stable vital signs after a 22-hour operation to separate them ended early on Tuesday at Mattel Children's Hospital at the University of California at Los Angeles.
"The fact that she actually opened her eyes means that her brain is turned on and working, but I wouldn't get overly excited about it," said Dr. Edward Schlasko, director of pediatric surgery at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, not directly involved in the case.
The twins were born in rural Guatemala with the tops of their heads fused and their faces tilted in opposite directions.
The girls -- who have yet to see each other -- were heavily sedated to protect them from injuring their brains by coughing or moving in the very early stages of recovery, but they are being weaned from the drugs, UCLA said.
"We remain cautiously optimistic about the long-term prospects of Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus," Dr. Andy Madikians, the twins' attending intensive care physician, said in a statement, adding: "There are still many medical hurdles to cross.
MOVEMENTS TO SHOW BRAIN FUNCTION
The twins' doctors, once girls are completely off the paralytic drugs, will be looking for them to wake up, look around and move all parts of their bodies, Schlasko said.
"Everything that happens will show that another part of the brain is working properly," he said.
The major complication of the separation surgery centered on the fact that the girls shared some of the veins that drain blood from the brain.
Parents Leticia Alba and Wenceslao Quiej-Alvarez are from Belen, one of thousands of dirt-poor coastal hamlets along Guatemala's south coast where people eke out a living in the banana, sugar and coffee industries.
The twins' father, who makes a living packing bananas, on Wednesday thanked God for the successful outcome of the surgery. "I am feeling more happy knowing that everything is coming out well," he told reporters.
Lead neurosurgeon Dr. Jorge Lazareff said he was "optimistic about the chances for a full recovery for both Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus, and their ability to live full and normal lives."
The girls are affectionately known as "Las Maritas," or "Little Marias" and Guatemalans are following their progress closely.
Conjoined twins occur once in every 200,000 live births, but twins who are fused at the tops of their heads, known as craniopagus twins, make up only about 2 percent of those.
They usually die early because organs like the heart and kidneys of one twin are doing most of the work and once they start to fail both twins will die.
The nonprofit group Healing the Children arranged for the twins to be treated at UCLA, which puts the cost of their care at $1.5 million, not including the services of the doctors, nurses and other professionals who donated their time.
