A woman almost died after 1,500 needles of acupuncture and thread embedding caused suppuration

A middle-aged woman who runs a famous breakfast shop in Taichung City received more than 1,500 injections from a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in order to lose weight. Unexpectedly, she did not lose fat, but instead developed cellulite. She recovered after three operations. She spent nearly NT$50,000 on weight loss and suffered so much that she sued the traditional Chinese medicine clinic. Although the "acupuncture and thread embedding" used by the woman is a legal medical practice, some Chinese medicine practitioners believe that inserting thousands of needles a year is a bit excessive. "Where can there be so many weight loss points on the body?"

Chinese medicine weight loss acupuncture and thread embedding should not be used excessively to avoid danger.

Mrs. Chen, 42 years old, lives in Tanzi District, Taichung City. She is 157 cm tall and weighs 88 kg. She runs a breakfast shop with her husband. Last April, she saw an advertisement for the Wenle Chinese Medicine Clinic near her home, which claimed that the acupuncture and thread embedding weight loss method was effective and safe. Mrs. Chen was impressed by the advertisement and spent 12,000 yuan to buy a weight loss package. She then purchased it three more times, spending a total of 48,000 yuan.

It is reported that during each treatment, the doctor would use a needle to implant about 1 cm long catgut into her body once a week, with 22 to 30 needles each time. In the 15 months since last year, Mrs. Chen was given about 1,500 injections, and her weight did drop from 88 kg to 75 kg.

However, on July 29 this year, she found a red, swollen lump on her left thigh. She asked the doctor, who told her that it was "the needle working inside the body" and asked her not to worry and continued to have the thread implanted in her body. But the next day she felt pain at the thread embedding site. After several days, the condition did not improve. So she went to Cheng Ching Hospital's China-Hong Kong Branch for treatment accompanied by her husband. The doctor suspected that she was infected with Staphylococcus aureus, which caused cellulitis.

Mrs. Chen complained to Apple Daily that she had to undergo three consecutive operations for treatment. She underwent 40 cuts in more than 10 places on her inner thighs, abdomen, waist, and arms to drain the pus from her body. In addition to the harm to her body, the breakfast shop business was also affected and shut down for two months. However, the Chinese medicine clinic was still performing acupuncture and thread embedding for other patients to lose weight, which made her feel aggrieved and she filed a lawsuit for compensation of 240,000 yuan.

In response to this, a doctor at Wen Le Chinese Medicine Clinic said in an interview with Apple Daily that alcohol was used for disinfection during the thread embedding process. It is suspected that Mrs. Chen's wound was not well cared for and the working environment was prone to bacteria, which led to the infection. Otherwise, there were no problems from April to July last year, so how could there be a problem suddenly? He emphasized that he had treated more than 100 patients, and some of them were fine after receiving 50 or 60 injections at a time.

However, some Chinese medicine practitioners pointed out that the general cycle of acupuncture and thread embedding for weight loss is once every two weeks, and the number of needles is usually 16 to 25. In more than a year, more than 1,500 needles are inserted, which does raise some health concerns. The Central City Health Bureau said it will investigate to determine whether there is any illegal activity at the clinic.

※ More Chinese medicine thread embedding:

• 【Traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture weight loss is suitable for people with simple obesity】

• [Traditional Chinese Medicine: Acupoint Thread Embedding for Weight Loss Combined with Diet Control]

• [There are many taboos in acupuncture and thread embedding!] Stop watching and listening to Chinese medicine for weight loss】

Source: ETtoday News Cloud http://www.ettoday.net/