The Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital has been accused of misdiagnosing a 22-month-old boy who was later temporarily paralyzed on the left side of his body due to a brain abscess.
The child’s mother, surnamed Wei (魏), said her son had a fever, was vomiting and drowsy on July 17, so she took him to Tzu Chi Hospital because of its reputation for having advanced medical facilities.
One of the hospital’s pediatricians, surnamed Yang (楊), conducted a series of laboratory tests on the boy and said he had acute gastroenteritis.
“However, two days after my son was admitted to the hospital, during which he was not allowed to eat or drink, the left side of his body suddenly became paralyzed and remained unresponsive even when I poked his [left] hand with a toothpick,” Wei told reporters.
Wei said Yang originally thought the paralysis was caused by a bone fracture, an assumption that was later ruled out by an X-ray.
Despite the worrisome symptoms, Wei said Yang stuck by his diagnosis and refused to run more tests. He only advised a lumbar puncture to look for meningitis, an infection of the membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord.
“I turned down the advice because the procedure seemed too risky given that my son had not had food or drink for days. I politely requested the hospital to transfer my son to National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, but it declined,” Wei said.
Wei said she had no choice but to go through time-consuming discharge procedures for her son before taking him on a flight to Taipei on the evening of July 19.
“We arrived at the Taipei hospital at approximately 8pm that day, and it took doctors at the hospital only four hours to ascertain the cause of my son’s symptoms — a brain abscess, a rare and life-threatening infection of the brain that has a fatality rate of up to 60 percent,” Wei said.
Wei said doctors told her that her son had missed the “golden period” for treatment of a brain infection and that his abscess might burst at any second.
They had to immediately perform surgery to drain the abscess, the mother said.
Such surgery can lead to serious complications, including lifelong paralysis, speech difficulties, mobility problems and epilepsy, she added.
Wei said although her son’s condition has improved since the surgery, there is still a long way to go before his mobility would be fully restored.
She added that she does not rule out taking legal action against the Hualien hospital.
Hualien hospital spokesman Lee Yi (李毅) said fever and vomiting are common symptoms of many medical conditions, and that Yang examined the boy in accordance with standard procedure.
“There was no malpractice involved in the [Hualien] hospital’s treatment of the little boy, but we humbly accept the criticism,” Lee said.
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