The Taipei City Physicians’ Disciplinary Committee has decided not to take disciplinary action against nine doctors at National Taiwan University Hospital who transplanted five organs from a donor with HIV last year, Taipei City’s Department of Health said yesterday, insisting that systemic flaws were to blame for the incident.
The nine doctors, led by Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the hospital’s intensive care unit chief and former director of the hospital’s organ transplant task force, transplanted the organs from an HIV-positive donor to five patients in August last year, putting the five recipients at high risk of contracting HIV and sparking public outrage over the case.
The committee, instructed by the Department of Health to launch a probe into the doctors’ responsibility for the case in accordance with the Physicians Act (醫師法), discussed the case on June 11 and decided the nine doctors did not violate the law, as they had no knowledge about the HIV-positive donor’s status at the time they performed the surgery.
Administrative flaws and human error were to blame for the incident, as most hospitals send a text message to the doctor or team in charge to inform them of such risks or results, but the hospital’s medical staff had failed to do so, the department’s chief secretary Jiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) said yesterday in explaining the committee’s decision.
“The Physicians Act states that doctors are liable to disciplinary action if they deliberately make serious or repeated mistakes. In this case, the doctors did not deliberately transplant HIV-infected organs, and they performed the surgeries following standard procedure,” she said.
In response to concerns about the doctors not being held accountable in the case, Jiang said the local prosecutors’ office has also launched an investigation into the incident to determine if the hospital or doctors were involved in administrative errors in the case.
Organ transplant coordinators, who were responsible for informing the transplant team of the organ test results, are also under investigation for allegedly informing the team that the organs had tested negative for HIV.
The hospital has been allowed to continue performing organ transplants while the investigation continues. However, the Department of Health investigative report suggested that the hospital needed to enforce training for organ transplant and donation teams and strengthen team cooperation.
So far, none of the five organ recipients or transplant team members has tested HIV-positive.
Jiang said that if any of the five recipients offered new evidence against the doctors, the committee would launch a new probe into the case.
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
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
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
Taiwan-based publisher Li Yanhe (李延賀) has been sentenced to three years in prison, fined 50,000 yuan (US$6,890) in personal assets and deprived political rights for one year for “inciting secession” in China, China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said today. The Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court announced the verdict on Feb. 17, Chen said. The trial was conducted lawfully, and in an open and fair manner, he said, adding that the verdict has since come into legal effect. The defendant reportedly admitted guilt and would appeal within the statutory appeal period, he said, adding that the defendant and his family have