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.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
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