National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) yesterday said that it has carried out a heart transplant on a woman whose heart had stopped beating 50 days before, marking a new record in the nation.
The 38-year-old woman surnamed Chen (陳) was in October last year stung by a bee while visiting Japan and she developed an acute fever and heart failure that led to cardiac arrest shortly after she returned to Taiwan.
The hospital immediately applied extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and waited for a suitable donor heart for transplant, as four available donor hearts were incompatible.
Photo: CNA
NTUH Cardiovascular Center director Chen Yih-sharng (陳益祥) yesterday said that the woman had acute myocarditis caused by an allergic reaction to the bee sting and her heart was barely beating when she was hospitalized.
After a cardiac ultrasound showed that her heart was hardly functioning, two ECMO systems were used to keep her alive while waiting for a transplant, he said.
She had complications — including acute kidney failure and small blood vessel blockage due to blood clots — during the wait, so the surgical team had to come up with a desensitization plan to remove harmful antibodies from her blood to reduce the risk of her body rejecting a transplant, he added.
“We had to use immunological methods to desensitize her body to reduce the risk of transplant rejection, but it was not totally without danger, because the use of immunosuppressive agents might lead to infections,” Chen Yih-sharng said.
A transplant was finally completed in December last year and the new heart has been functioning properly over the past six months, he said.
The woman could have had a stroke at any time during the waiting period and the surgical team had growing concerns that she would remain in a vegetative state even after the transplant, Chen Yih-sharng said, but added that she still demonstrated slight reactions, a computed tomography scan showed no cranial bleeding and her family was very supportive.
The woman yesterday said that at the time, she could hear sounds around her, but could not move her body.
Noting that at the time she needed transfusions of up to 3 liters of blood per day, she expressed gratitude to all involved in saving her life.
The woman’s husband, surnamed Chin (秦), said that at first, after being informed of the situation in the intensive care unit, he could not accept that his wife’s heart had stopped beating.
However, because he did not want to give up hope, he said that he visited and talked to her several times a day while she waited for a donor heart.
The average waiting period for a heart transplant at NTHU is about 40 days, Chen Yih-sharng said.
Family support was also very important, because it allowed the surgical team to put all their efforts into saving the woman, he added.
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
Taiwan’s first African swine fever (ASF) case has been confirmed and would soon be reported to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) yesterday. The Ministry of Agriculture’s Veterinary Research Institute yesterday completed the analysis of samples collected on Tuesday from dead pigs at a hog farm in Taichung and found they were ASF-positive. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency Animal Quarantine Division chief Lin Nien-nung (林念農) said the result would be reported to the WOAH and Taiwan’s major trade partners would also be notified, adding that pork exports would be suspended. As of Friday, all samples
RSS