Doctors at a local hospital lauded the "miraculous" recovery of a man, who spent a record 117 days on ECMO therapy and will be leaving hospital in time to spend Lunar New Year with his family.
ECMO, or Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, oxygenates blood and removes carbon dioxide from patients whose cardio-pulmonary systems have ceased to function normally.
While the use of ECMOs is relatively common, what made the case unusual was the fact that the patient was kept alive by the system -- usually reserved for short-term life-support measured in days -- for almost four months, doctors at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) said.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
After nearly drowning on July 22 last year, the 26-year-old man surnamed Hu (
"You can see on the X-rays that both sides of his lungs had turned opaque, which means they were permeated with water," said Tsai Keh-sung (
Hu's lung almost completely ceased to function at one point, making it necessary for him to be hooked up to two ECMO machines at the same time.
"The fact that he recovered is something of a miracle," said Lee Yung-chie (
Wang Chih-hsien (王植賢), one of the specialists who tended to Hu, said he estimated the hospital incurred costs of NT$2.5 million on Hu's care in the first month alone.
"The first month is the most expensive as he had to be hooked up to two ECMOs," he said.
The use of ECMOs is covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI), but hospital doctors said that reimbursement by the NHI have to be approved on a case-by-case basis.
"In around 11 percent of cases, reimbursement is denied," said Ko Wen-che (
In such cases the hospital is required to absorb the cost rather than passing it on to the patients.
Although ECMO has been in use for 14 years, the treatment has come under the spotlight in recent years. Many patients' families now request ECMO treatment by name when their loved ones are in critical condition, while others have criticized hospitals for overusing the expensive treatment on unsuitable candidates.
"Deciding whether to treat a patient with ECMO is an agonizing choice," Ko said.
"It's even harder to decide when to turn the ECMO off," Ko said.
About 150 patients were put on ECMO therapy last year at NTUH, more than any other hospital in the world. Sixty survived, a success rate of just 40 percent.
"But without the ECMO, every one of those 60 people would be dead," Ko said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS