When National Sun Yat-sen University business management assistant professor Wang Chih-yuan was hiking with his girlfriend in 2015, he contracted an atypical infection that led to multiple organ failure and necrosis in his limbs, all four of which later had to be amputated. He was fitted with electric arms and prosthetic legs, but felt that his arms were not as responsive as he had hoped, and were unable to perform fine movements, making it very difficult to cope with everyday situations. A medical team at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital found him a suitable arm donor, and he became the recipient of Taiwan’s first allogeneic double arm transplant.
The price of receiving an allogeneic transplant is having to take immunosuppressant (anti-rejection) drugs for the rest of one’s life. Before, he was having to take between 30 and 40 pills per day, but now he is down to just over 20 anti-rejection pills a day.
He is now able to stretch his arms back over his shoulders, and can also use a mobile phone with the help of an assistive device. He is working hard on rehabilitation, trying to perform progressively more precise movements. Wang is confident that, through rehabilitation, he will be able to become self-sufficient. He is not beyond finding the funny side of his condition, either, saying that if he ever went to a palm-reader, they would be unlikely to give him a very accurate reading.
Photo: CNA
照片:中央社
(CNA, translated by Paul Cooper)
中山大學企管系助理教授王致遠二○一五年偕女友爬山,疑因非典型感染導致多重器官衰竭,四肢壞死,最後被迫截肢。他裝上電子手臂和雙腿義肢,但因手部靈活度不足,電子手臂無法做細緻動作,生活難以自理。他得到林口長庚醫療團隊的協助,獲得適合捐助者的手臂,成為台灣首例雙臂異體移植者。
接受異體移植,代價是一輩子的抗排斥藥物,過去一天服用三十到四十顆藥,目前一天要吞二十幾顆的抗排斥藥。
他現在可以雙臂過肩後仰伸展,也能用輔具操作手機,努力在復健上朝更細緻的動作進步。他有信心透過復健,達成生活自理,不過也自我調侃,如果算命看手相,肯定不會準。
(中央社)
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