Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital: Hospital Introduction
Speech: Medical assistance should have no borders. For example, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital took action to achieve medical diplomacy, attracting the president of Nauru to travel across the oceans to seek medical treatment, and our team also used medical soft power to travel to Nauru, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, upholding the spirit of love without borders to cure sick children in Vietnam, and this time in Cambodia, our medical team will once again create a miracle.
Chiu, Yi-Hsuan: The department of pediatrics started the Cambodian Children’s Health Promotion Program in 2016, and found a case like Lindsay.
Speech: Lindsay, who is five years old this year, is a child who grew up in Cambodia and has a congenital heart defect.
Lu, Wen Hsien: Using mobile echocardiography to diagnose that it is indeed a transposition of great artery, which leads to pulmonary hypertension and can no longer, be corrected by surgery. Another difficulty is the patient’s medical transportation in the air.
Speech: Normal saturation of blood oxygen is more than 90%, respiration rate is about 20 times per minute, while Lindsay’s saturation of blood oxygen is only 55%, and respiration rate is as high as 60 times per minute.
Before boarding, Lindsay's blood oxygen saturation, which was originally as low as 55%, fell even lower due to excessive stress and crying. Worried about the occurrence of arrhythmia and hypotension, almost all the medical staff in charge sat on the aisle and monitored the vital sign of Lindsay. Finally, after four hours of flight, they finally arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport successfully.
After arriving at the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, the most important thing is to conduct a cardiac catheterization. In the face of children who come to Taiwan from overseas to seek cure, the medical professional team appears to be extra cautious. During the examination process, in order to be more cautious and worried about factors such as different organ structures, the original two-hour examination took six hours instead to completed.
Pan, Chun Yen: Children with transposition of great artery combined with ventricular septal defect should undergo surgery for correction during the infant period. Otherwise, they will die due to severe heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.
Speech: Normal heart circulation is that the right heart is connected to the pulmonary artery, and the left heart is connected to the aorta. The transposition of great artery is the misalignment of the above two main blood vessels. Even in Taiwan and other advanced countries, there are children like Lindsay who have a ventricular septal defect, will also perform the correction within 2 months after birth.
So far, 49 cases of transposition of great artery procedures have been performed. The authority of pediatric cardiovascular surgery, Director Pan Chun Yen, has passed on the contents, difficulty and risks of the surgery to the family through the Cambodian medical staff who studied in Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and began to prepare for the surgery.
From 8:30 in the morning, the operating room was very busy, performing anesthesia, installing monitors and circuits, and preparing for ECMO, and finally started the first cut of the operation at ten o'clock on time. After 13 hours of the operation, Lindsay was successfully sent back to the ICU in the end.
With the hard work of the medical team, he stopped using the respirator within a short time, and the lowest blood oxygen saturation was more than 90%. Lindsay's heart failure index after the surgery fell from the most severe level 4 to level 1 or 2. It is not only his life that is being continued, but his life is also full of infinite excitement and possibility.
Lindsay’s aunt: I am Lindsay’s aunt. They (the medical staff) are very skilled. At first, we didn't want this day to happen, on the one hand, it was because the operation took too long, and on the other hand, both my mother and I were afraid that something unexpected would happen. But after the operation, we were very happy to see the success of the operation, and the people around us also cared about us very much. Thank you, thank you, and I am very grateful.
Speech: Constructing a national model of critical care medicine and developing international critical medicine are our long-term goals. In order to reverse the transfer model of myocardial infarction patients in Taiwan and introduce medical treatment from hospitals to the community, we have first created "diagnosis of myocardial infarction patients in an ambulance before arriving at the hospital" through continuous improvement of quality for more than a decade. The average time from the patient’s arrival in the hospital to the completion of the vessel reperfusion in Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital is 49.8 minutes, which is much lower than the international treatment standard of 60 minutes, and this record makes us an international base of heartbeat rescuing.
Department of critical medicine, with innovative and flexible hand stabilizer, positioning blanket that can complete ECG examination in 10 seconds, suspension system for critical illness, and VR-assisted rehabilitation equipment, can provide more high-quality and safe care for critical patients.
Department of physical medicine and rehabilitation uses comics of rate of perceived exertion on posters to create a dedicated cardiopulmonary function test for children.
Department of orthopedics, the first integrative gait analysis to treat children with cerebral palsy, improve the rate of up to 18.1%, in sports medicine, department of orthopedics is the leader in the treatment of sports injuries.
The endoscopic surgery of the spine not only has the advantages of small opening and fast postoperative recovery, but also reduces the sequelae of back muscle stiffness and soreness caused by traditional surgery.
Gamma knife surgery, which does not require the use of a scalpel, does not require general anesthesia, and incorporates a customized treatment plan, has become the best choice for patients with brain lesions and not suitable for surgery
Da Vinci surgery, with the most accurate, smallest opening, and rapid recovery has become the biggest advantage. Our hospital has performed thousands of cases, so our experience is very rich.
Hybrid OR, combined with surgical and internal medical skills, and the construction of a video platform, has created a new low-invasive surgical method that effectively reduces the postoperative pain.
Kidney transplantation is the most mature organ transplantation operation with a success rate of over 95%.
The Department of Ophthalmology, the guardian of vision, has an innovative retinal surgery method with a success rate of 98.1%, exceeding the world standard.
Department of otolaryngology – Head and Neck surgery, established the Sound and Respiratory Reconstruction Center. In the past three years, it has completed more than 150 voice outpatient surgery and more than 50 laryngotracheal reconstruction surgery.
3D printing-assisted oral cancer surgery, innovative technology leads customized medical materials, providing cancer patients with both functional and aesthetic effects.
The Department of radiology, accurate imaging diagnosis and treatment, shortens the time from breast cancer screening to diagnosis from up to five weeks to three hours. The early detection rate is as high as 65.6%, which is better than the national average of 40%.
Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, this department is the first in Taiwan to combine a number of sophisticated equipment, treating more than 24,000 people every year, and helping more than 1,000 patients to overcome cancer.
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, exclusive hepatic artery chemotherapy can extend the average survival time up to 18 months, far better than the average of 3.6-14.9 months in the world.
GTP and P3 laboratories create high-standard sterilized laboratories, establish a mechanism for storing human cells, and provide a safe examination environment.
Department of family medicine, breaking through the barriers of language and culture, created a tobacco free global village, which has also assisted in winning the medal of global tobacco free hospital.
The Reproduction Medicine Center introduces the concept of holistic health care, making the cumulative live birth rate of women under 37 years old up to 70%, making us a southern Taiwan stork fertility center
Health care center has created an exclusive comfortable and quiet waiting space, providing customers with a professional team of doctors and full-time personal service
Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital has built a patient-centric decision-making platform centered on patients, and introduced a holistic health care platform to ensure patient care. Our efforts have won many national quality badges and reached world and national standards.
To fulfill social responsibilities, develop research and creative capabilities, and create value in the minds of customers, we regard Pingtung branch as the second branch of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and build a health care department and establish a new generation of intelligent medical technology management. We aim to provide the most sincere service, "be a medical worker in your mind", and extend the hope of every patient with the compassionate love. In life, there may be times when you feel exhausted, but as long as you still have hope, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital can make you embrace happiness again.
MY Kindly Service from a Very Good Hospital.