Plucky Yik Siu-ling is 'doing fine'

Manila hostage crisis survivor Yik Siu-ling is said by her doctors to be doing fine after undergoing complex surgery to rebuild her shattered lower jaw at one of Taiwan's leading hospitals.

"Blood circulation in the skin area around her newly built lower jaw, face and neck is normal and steady" Chang Gung Memorial Hospital said in a statement yesterday, its first comments since the 37-year-old underwent the tricky 10-hour operation on Wednesday.

The hospital said that Yik was able to breathe easily by herself, and had a breathing aid removed the day after the operation.

The hospital said the surgery, led by a team of top craniofacial and microsurgical reconstruction specialists and physicians, involved incision of the scar contractures caused by her previous surgical operations in Hong Kong, followed by the reconstruction of her lower jaw.

Part of her calf bone was removed to form the basis of her reconstructed jaw, the hospital said, adding that Yik was admitted to an intensive care ward shortly after the operation for special attention.

Hospital sources said it would be some time before Yik was able to talk. She would offer no press interviews nor appear at press conferences for the time being.

Yik underwent 33 operations in Hong Kong, which also included the implantation of bone from one of her calves.