Myanmar girl with abnormally swollen tongue gains new life in Taiwan
2015/07/16 23:22:11
Pu (R) smiles with Dr. Lee.
Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwanese doctors have successfully operated on a Myanmar girl suffering from extensive hemangioimas of the tongue who had been turned down by nine hospitals in three countries before coming to Taiwan.
Doctors and Pu Shuang-ting's (濮雙婷) family gave a press conference at Taipei's Tri-Service General Hospital Thursday to report on the girl's gradual return to normal life after two months' treatment here.
Dr. Lee Hsiao-ping said the medical team first shrank the five-year-old's vascular tumor from 10 cm to 8 cm before removing it.
Surgeons then had four operations on Pu, who arrived in Taiwan in late May with a tongue three times a normal size that bleeds regularly because of biting.
With a series of operations, she is now able to speak normally and is receiving rehab treatment, Lee said, adding that a plastic surgery is needed for her to completely recover.
Before coming to Taiwan at the arrangement of Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps (TRMPC, 臺灣路竹會), a private non-profit organization, Pu had visited hospitals in Myanmar, China and Thailand but no doctors were confident of curing her illness.
Pu is a girl of Chinese descent living in a mountainous area in northern Myanmar. She is accompanied by her mom and aunt in Taiwan.
Hemangiomas that are common in infancy and childhood are an abnormal buildup of blood vessels that may occur in any vascularized tissue, largely in the skin or internal organs.
Considering that the financial problems facing the Pu family, the Taiwanese group decided to pay all expenses associated with travel to the island, including air tickets, local transportation, food and accommodation, as well as medical bills.
(By Sunrise Huang, Lung Pei-ning and S.C. Chang)
