TAIPEI : A young man who had been badly injured from a traffic accident and had been in a coma for 62 days suddenly became conscious when he heard his brother mention his favorite dish — “chicken fillet”.
In July of this year, an 18-year-old male surnamed Chiu from Hsinchu County was involved in a road accident when he was riding his scooter. During the collision, he suffered serious damage to multiple organs in his body.
When he was rushed to the hospital, he was rated with a coma index of three. Hsieh Tsung-hsin , director of the Intensive Care Unit at Ton Yen General Hospital said that Chiu had suffered subdural hydrops, pneumothorax, laceration of spleen, right kidney, and liver, bleeding from abdominal cavity fractures, common iliac artery bleeding, and most of his internal organs were seriously damaged, reported TVBS. Doctors performed emergency surgery and were able to stabilize his condition, but he fell into a deeper coma.
During his hospitalization, he underwent six operations which included craniotomy, laparotomy, right kidney nephrectomy, splenectomy, liver repair, right clavicle and right femur open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF), bilateral internal iliac artery embolization to stop bleeding, and enterostomy, reported UDN. Hsieh said that the medical staff approached the repair of his body one step at a time, and he attributed the young man’s ultimate recovery to his strong will to survive.
A nurse at the hospital recalled that Chiu went through a constant “tug of war with the god of death” with his family by his side, praying that he would wake up soon. She said that when he was on his 62nd day in a coma, his older brother suddenly joked “Brother, I’m going to eat you your favorite chicken fillet.”
Unexpectedly, Chiu’s pulse began to accelerate and he miraculously began to regain consciousness and his vital signs began to stabilize. Having fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital for some time, Chiu recently returned with a cake to thank the medical team and credited his recovery to their tireless efforts.
