Chen Chi-chung (
This is exactly what happened to Chen in late February after doctors at National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital were forced to remove his heart when he became severely ill after catching a cold.
At a press conference held by the NTU Hospital on Monday, doctors said this was the first such case in the history of transplant surgery, with no other example in medical documentation.
Chen, an otherwise healthy 60-year-old man, caught a cold in January. Soon afterwards, he started to feel pain in his back and legs, and suffered from a loss of appetite. His condition then quickly deteriorated; he had trouble breathing and sleeping.
On February 12, an ultrasound examination showed that his heart had been damaged by an infection.
The following day, Chen developed pulmonary edema and heart failure, and emergency surgery had to be performed.
When the surgeon in the hospital in southern Taiwan, where Chen was being treated, began to operate, it was discovered that Chen's heart had been destroyed by bacteria.
After talking over the circumstance with the Chen family, it was decided that the entire heart should be removed and that Chen be put on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, which could take over the functions of his heart until a donor heart was found.
An important factor in this unprecedented decision was that Chen's son is a doctor and for this reason doctors dared take the risk of removing the heart before a replacement had been found.
When NTU Hospital received the request for help from the southern hospital, it immediately sent an ambulance to take Chen to Taipei. Sixteen days later, a donor heart became available and put into Chen's empty chest during a six-hour operation.
Chen and his wife expressed their sincere thanks to the doctors, the donor and the donor's family.
Doctors believe that Chen's heart problems may be related to a bacterial infection caused by a periodontal disease.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2