A 10-year-old Mongolian girl named Enkhmend, who suffered from a malignant germ cell tumor of the brain and was unable to be treated in her country, is, after surgery at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, showing signs of recovery and can even walk on her own, the hospital said.
Chen Hsin-hong (陳信宏), a physician at the hospital’s Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery who performed the surgery, said Enkhmend was transferred to the hospital in July last year because she suffered from headaches, drowsiness and unconsciousness, and was diagnosed with a malignant germ cell tumor about the size of an egg in her brain.
When Enkhmend arrived at the hospital, she was unconscious and the team performed a 10-hour craniotomy — the surgical removal of part of the bone from the skull to expose the brain — to remove the tumor.
Chen said Enkhmend recovered and returned to Mongolia.
However, last month she was admitted to the hospital again due to meningitis. She was treated with antibiotics, had surgery to treat hydrocephalus and was discharged from the hospital last week.
Yesterday at the hospital, Enkhmend’s mother said they are grateful for what the hospital and Taiwan have done to help them.
Malignant germ cell tumors of the brain more commonly occur in children and the prevalence in Taiwan is about five times of that in Western nations, Chen said, adding that symptoms include headaches, unconsciousness, diabetes insipidus, blurred vision and weak limbs.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS