Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has cancelled a trip to Australia in order to deal with a crisis that erupted after city hospitals turned away a critically injured child.
"I think at this moment it is best to stay in the country to clear things up," Ma told reporters yesterday.
PHOTO: CNA
"It's a shame to the capital that the hospitals didn't do everything in their power to treat the girl," he said.
Ma decided to cancel the visit late Friday after a hospital allegedly admitted to sending the child away despite having a vacancy in its intensive care unit.
Ma had postponed the Australian trip scheduled for Thursday by two days amid mounting criticism over his handling of the issue.
He had also planned to visit Thailand and make a transit stop in Hong Kong.
Ma, who has been tipped to run for president in 2008, has seen his popularity hit a record low in several surveys this week after the incident provoked a public outcry over the poor state of Taipei's health-care system.
Meanwhile, the Municipal Jen Ai Hospital did not try its best to help, Taipei Deputy Mayor Yeh Chin-chuan (
"Jenai's emergency room was really full on the day," Yeh said. "But it would have been possible to spare an additional spot for the little girl if [the medical personnel at Jenai] had tried," Yeh said.
Yeh made his remarks during a press conference at city hall yesterday morning, after city officials interrogated 11 employees of Jen Ai for more the seven hours overnight on Friday.
According to the preliminary investigation by the Taipei City Government, all beds at Jenai were occupied when the girl arrived.
However, it would have been possible for the hospital to perform surgery on the girl and then try to obtain a free bed for her afterwards, but the hospital did not do so.
"In addition, interviewees told us that they did not have adequate equipment to treat the girl," Yeh said. "That was another reason why they decided to refer her to other hospitals."
In the meantime, Yeh said that a well-organized and complete report on the case will be available tomorrow. Copies of the report will be delivered to the Taipei City Council, the Control Yuan and the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office for further investigation and potential punishment of some personnel.
The four-year-old girl, who was only identified by her surname, Chiu, was delivered to Jen Ai at midnight on Jan. 10 with serious brain injuries after she was beaten up by her father.
When Chiu was sent to Jen Ai, Emergency Room Chief Lee Bin-chou (李彬州) decided to help Chiu and asked for approval from Jen Ai's Doctor-in-Chief Lin Chih-nan (林致男).
However, Lin and neurological surgeon Liu Chi-hwa (劉奇樺) decided to try to send Chiu to a nearby hospital because they believed that Jen Ai did not have the available staff and equipment to help Chiu. In addition, there was no bed was available for Chiu at the time.
Chiu was then referred to Tung General Hospital in Taichung County, which is approximately 150km away and two to three hours' drive from Taipei City.
As of press time yesterday, Chiu was still in a coma in an intensive care unit.
"I asked Lee to refer Chiu to a nearby hospital because all of our equipment and neurological surgeons were occupied, so it was impossible for us to take good care of her," Lin said. "However, it surprised me as well that the `nearby hospital' turned out to be Tung General Hospital in Taichung."
At the press conference yesterday, Ma said that the city government is supposed to take care of Taipei citizens no matter what.
"I am not a doctor, so it would be improper for me to comment on a medical decision like this," Ma said. "However, as a mayor and a Taipei citizen, I believe that the city government is obliged to take care of its own citizens no matter what."
Later last night, at around 7pm, under the lead of the Taipei City Government's department of health director Chang Heng (
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS