Condition after my sister's sugery in QM hospital, HK

[Cancankwok]

Dear Dr. Young,

First of all, I am really thankful for referring Dr. Wong Yat Wah from QM to my sister. After evaluating the condition of my sister, Dr. Wong has undergone the surgery to take out the remaining bone fragment on her back neck (and Dr. Wong said it's still has bone fragment on the front neck that has not been taken out in Scotland but he think it's okay to leave it as long as the one at the back is out) and also to replace one of the screws that fixing her neck by a smaller one as he found the original one was actually pressing the nerve. The result of the surgery, I think, is satisfactory as her fingers, even though it's not all of them, have shown a little bit of movement. It's very exciting for me to see her trying to scatch her face which I've never seen before in Scotland

For the rest of the body, like the shoulder down, doctor says she only has a very very slim chance to get complete recovery / walking again as she is serious injuried with C7 complete. Actually, I dare not to ask anything about the future of the spinal cord injury treatment which you are working on for the patients like my sister as I really want to hold on tight the hopes for my sister and my family instead of getting the news that make us feel to be thrown to hell again. Knowing that the future of the spinal cord treatment is for chronic, complete / incomplete injuries, I might think the statement of my sister's doctor is due to hospital doctor shouldn't promise any future cures which haven't been confirmed. Am I right, or am I just making excuses? I am really afraid that my sister, would be unlucky to entitle cure, even a bit, that most of the patients here are waiting for.


Candy

[Wise Young]

Originally Posted by Cancankwok

Dear Dr. Young,

First of all, I am really thankful for referring Dr. Wong Yat Wah from QM to my sister. After evaluating the condition of my sister, Dr. Wong has undergone the surgery to take out the remaining bone fragment on her back neck (and Dr. Wong said it's still has bone fragment on the front neck that has not been taken out in Scotland but he think it's okay to leave it as long as the one at the back is out) and also to replace one of the screws that fixing her neck by a smaller one as he found the original one was actually pressing the nerve. The result of the surgery, I think, is satisfactory as her fingers, even though it's not all of them, have shown a little bit of movement. It's very exciting for me to see her trying to scatch her face which I've never seen before in Scotland

For the rest of the body, like the shoulder down, doctor says she only has a very very slim chance to get complete recovery / walking again as she is serious injuried with C7 complete. Actually, I dare not to ask anything about the future of the spinal cord injury treatment which you are working on for the patients like my sister as I really want to hold on tight the hopes for my sister and my family instead of getting the news that make us feel to be thrown to hell again. Knowing that the future of the spinal cord treatment is for chronic, complete / incomplete injuries, I might think the statement of my sister's doctor is due to hospital doctor shouldn't promise any future cures which haven't been confirmed. Am I right, or am I just making excuses? I am really afraid that my sister, would be unlucky to entitle cure, even a bit, that most of the patients here are waiting for.


Candy

Candy, please apologize to your sister for me. She was arriving in Hong Kong in the evening of May 20 and I was leaving early the next morning. I spoke to Dr. Kwok (the neurosurgeon) on the phone around 5 pm and learned that she had not arrived and they would not have had a chance to evaluate her carefully that evening. So, we agreed that I would try to see her the next time I go to Hong Kong which is in the middle of June.

I have great confidence in the doctors of Hong Kong University. They are very careful and good surgeons who are very aware of the importance of rehabiitation. Being that many of them trained in the English system which is more conservative concerning a "cure" than the U.S., they have a tendency to be cautiously pessimistic. However, they are open-minded.

The most important task for your sister right now is to get the best rehabilitation possible and learn how to deal the injury. We are working very hard on the clinical trials and, as you might guess even from this web site, China is quite a bit ahead of the rest of the world in terms of clinical trials of spinal cord injury. HKU is of course one of our ChinaSCINet centers and will be part of the trials.

I hope to meet your sister in mid-June. I am in Taiwan right now, at a stem cell meeting in Taichung but unfortunately have to rush back to the U.S. to give a lecture in Philadelphia on Wednesday or else I would stop in Hong Kong to see your sister earlier. The meeting is interesting because Taiwan has a lot of very promising stem cell rsearch going on.

I am really glad that Dr. Wong Yatwa is working with your sister. He was on his way to Sichuan for the earthquake victims as I was leaving Hong Kong on May 21. In fact, most of the doctors in all ChinaSCINet center were on their way to Sichuan. I estimate that there may be as many as 2500 people with spinal cord injuries from the earthquake.

Wise.

[Cancankwok]

Dear Dr. Young,

Thanks for your kind attention to my sister and she is happy you might be able to visit her in mid-June. Dr. Wong told my sister today that she is going to be transferred to Maclehose soon.
Patients like my sister must be very grateful to have such a wonderful researcher like you. You are a great person for being so open-minded and confidence on what you are working on for all of us
We never give up because we still have hope.

Candy