Four out of the six babies who survived receiving the wrong injection at Taipei's Peicheng Hospital for Women and Children Friday are now able to breathe on their own, hospital sources said yesterday.
A baby died Friday after a nurse in the hospital mistakenly injected seven newborns with the muscle relaxant Atracurium rather than a hepatitis B vaccine.
The seven babies, all suffering breathing difficulties, were transferred to four hospitals for emergency treatment Friday night.
Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, at which one of the four babies sent to it died, said yesterday that the other three babies were in stable condition.
"Two babies can already breathe by themselves. The other baby still needs a ventilator, but doctors say her condition is stable now," said hospital spokesman Hong Wang-long (
The baby sent to Taipei Medical University Hospital still requires assistance breathing, a hospital source said.
Reports said the two babies transferred to National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital were both able to breathe by themselves.
The nurse responsible for administering the injections said she is content to look back on the tragedy from behind bars.
"Just detain me. Let me think about the whole event in the detention center," Huang Ching-hui (
Huang said she did notice that the containers of the vaccines she was to inject into the babies were different from those used for hepatitis B vaccines.
"I showed the containers to another nurse and asked her why the containers were different," Huang said.
"The nurse told me that the package of the vaccines may have been changed. After I injected one-and-a-half bottles of the vaccine into the babies, they started to show abnormal signs," she said.
Huang said she did not know why the muscle relaxant Atracurium would appear in the basket where hepatitis B vaccines were usually placed.
According to investigators, Atracurium had been placed in the basket for hepatitis B vaccines without any signs noting the difference.
Peicheng Hospital Director Hsu Mu-chan (
The Department of Health (DOH) has formed a task force to investigate the tragedy.
Huang Fu-yuan (
Meanwhile, a woman died of amniotic fluid embolism shortly after giving birth in the Peicheng Hospital Friday night. Her frustrated family accused the hospital of negligence.
Hsu Keng-yao (
"My wife had been kept waiting until 2:45pm, when she received her second dose of anesthetic. My daughter was born about 3:30pm," Hsu Keng-yao said.
"But the hospital suddenly informed me my wife needed to be transferred to another hospital at 8pm. At 10pm she died at the Far Eastern Hospital," Hsu Keng-yao said.
Hsu Mu-chan said the tragedy was not the result of hospital negligence.
Acting head of the DOH Twu Shiing-jer (
Twu said the department would seriously consider shutting down the hospital.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and