Three-month-old twin girls, who were born joined at the chest and abdomen, have been discharged from a Shanghai hospital after recovering from surgery to separate them.

The sisters were in a sound condition and should grow up healthily like other children, said doctors with the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, which headed the operation earlier this month.

"Actually, their situation after the operation is much better than we expected," said Zheng Shan, vice president of the hospital. "They have a good appetite and they have gained 1.3 kilograms since March."

The families of the twin girls traveled from their hometown in Yuncheng County, eastern Shandong Province, to take the girls back home on Tuesday.

"I'm the luckiest and happiest mother in the world," said the mother, who just gave her surname as Nie. "I almost lost them, but now, they are back and more importantly, healthy."

The girls were named Liu Shenxin and Liu Shenjia. "We did so because 'Shen' is another name for Shanghai and we hope they will remember that it was the doctors in Shanghai who gave them a second life," said Nie.

The sisters were born on Jan. 30 in Yuncheng. They were taken to the Shanghai hospital on March 5 and doctors found they were joined at the chest and abdomen, and shared their liver, which was divided between them.

Doctors decided to separate them after a thorough physical examination to assess whether they were strong enough for the operation.

The family was too poor to pay for the surgery, but they had received enough donations to cover the costs, according to Nie.

Experts estimate one set of conjoined twins are born out of every 50,000 to 100,000 babies.

Shanghai hospitals have carried out separation surgery on nine pairs of Siamese twins over the past five years. Eight pairs survived. Five of the operations were performed at Fudan University children's hospital.

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2007)