Taiwan tourist has medical history sent to Brisbane; life saved

Cerebral thrombosis is the formation of a clot or another kind of blockage in one of the blood vessels of the brain. It may be fatal.

Her condition has improved after her medical history was sent to Gold Coast Hospital at Brisbane after the foreign ministry had helped cut the official red tape at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei to obtain her record. Without the history that shows Tsui has undergone coronary angioplasty, doctors at the Australian hospital would have had difficulty giving her the right treatment.

Angioplasty is a procedure to open clogged blood vessels of the heart to put in stents or remove cholesterol accumulations in the coronary arteries.

According to the hospital act, no medical history can be given unless requested by the patient or her next of kin in person. Her next of kin is her stepmother, who is with her on a weeklong tour of Australia and her husband, who rushed to Brisbane on August 10, on learning his daughter had a cerebral thrombosis attack. Neither of them could return to Taipei to get the medical history. So they turned to Taipei's mission in Brisbane for help.

On receiving the call for help from Brisbane, the foreign ministry contacted the Veterans General Hospital, which agreed to send the history to Brisbane, a Waichiaopu spokesman said yesterday.

Chang Chi-ping, MOFA deputy director-general of information and cultural affairs, said Mrs. Tsui got her daughter's medical history to Gold Coast doctors, who are treating her illness.

She passed out at a Brisbane aquarium on September 9, the fourth day of her weeklong tour. She and her stepmother left Taipei for Australia on September 2.

Gold Coast surgeons removed a clot from a blood vessel in Tsui's brain on the day she was taken to the hospital. She then developed brain edema or effusion of serous fluid into the interstices of brain cells. Doctors asked to know Tsui's medical history so that they would be able to better treat her.

Mrs. Tsui called the Veterans General Hospital from Brisbane to obtain the history, and was told she had to come back to get it in person or authorize someone in Taipei with a power of attorney as her proxy. “We made a request for help in writing to the Taipei Municipal Health Bureau on Friday,” Chang said. Municipal health officials persuaded the Veterans General Hospital to issue Tsui's medical history to her mother. Arrangements are being made for Tsui to come back to receive further treatment at the Veterans General Hospital, Chang said.

“She will be back here on Wednesday at the earliest,” Chang said.

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