In April last year, student Wang Hung-chih (王宏至) rode his bicycle off a cliff, injured his head and fell into a coma. He came out of the coma in June last year.
Wang on Tuesday last week returned to Asia University Hospital to thank doctor Lin Chih-lung (林志隆) and the medical team that saved his life.
In April, Wang had blood collecting in his pleural cavity, a collapsed lung and low blood pressure when he arrived at the hospital, where staff found that his skull had fractured into 13 pieces and gave him a score of three on the Glasgow coma scale — which is scored from three to 15, with three being the worst, Lin said on Tuesday last week.
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
Wang’s skull sustained so much damage that the fractures would not close when healed, Lin said.
The medical team decided to perform a cranioplasty using titanium, as aluminum was not dense enough and iron was too heavy, Lin said, adding that titanium cranioplasty is expensive, costing up to NT$150,000, but the hospital obtained a National Health Insurance subsidy for Wang.
“We thought there was an 80 percent chance that Wang would not make it,” Lin added.
However, Wang survived and after a year of rehabilitation he can walk and take care of himself once again, Lin said.
While his injuries gave him a speech impediment, Wang can now communicate normally and has returned to school a year ahead of schedule, Lin said.
Wang said he is happy to be back at school and hopes to soon start playing his favorite sport, tchoukball.
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