A middle-aged man lost all hope last month when a doctor from the Taitung City Health Station identified a 3cm-wide round-shaped shadow in his chest X-ray as a lung nodule, which can be an early sign of lung cancer, but experienced an equally overwhelming sense of relief when another hospital told him it was just a button on his shirt.
The man, surnamed Wu (吳), said he had a chest X-ray taken on X-ray touring bus at the health station earlier last month.
After Wu was informed that he had a pulmonary nodule, he took a long leave of absence from work to embark on a trip abroad to clear his head and started drawing up a will detailing how his assets were to be allocated to his three children after his passing, he said.
“I told myself to prepare for the worst-case scenario and just continue living my life,” Wu said.
It took Wu a while before he summoned up the courage to seek a second opinion at another hospital, which is where he found out all his fears were for nothing — he had a healthy pair of lungs.
“It turned out that the round shadow was one of the buttons on the polo shirt I was wearing on the day I got the X-ray. The radiologist forgot to tell me to change into an hospital gown or put on a buttonless shirt,” Wu said.
The health station apologized for the radiologist’s negligence and pledged to strengthen staff training to prevent such incidents from recurring.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese