Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) collapsed for the fourth time since being incarcerated, prompting concerns over his deteriorating health, Chen’s all-volunteer medical group said yesterday
Kuo Cheng-deng (郭正典), one of the doctors in the group, said Chen had been about to answer a call of nature at about 7:30pm when — as happened in the previous incidents — he lost his balance and fell onto a sofa close to his bed, hitting his head on a cell wall in the process.
Chen’s aides helped him up and brought him to the bed to rest, Kuo said, adding that the former president lost the urge to visit the restroom for several hours after the fall.
Kuo said that Chen told him it had not been so much a serious fall as a stumble, but that he had felt sick and experienced a tightness in his chest, though he had not fainted.
Kuo added that Chen’s daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), and her husband, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), had visited A-bian on Sunday.
During the visit, Chao, a doctor, diagnosed the former president with a fracture in the last vertebra of his coccyx, strain injuries in the muscles near both of his shoulder joints and contusions below his left knee, which were sustained in his third fall on Feb. 28.
Chen Shui-bian first fell down in prison on Jan. 13, injuring some muscles in his right shoulder.
Chao has a degree in orthopedic surgery and did his residency at National Taiwan University Hospital from 1998 to 2003.
Kuo said that Chao planned to visit the former president again on Sunday to try and ameliorate his physical pain.
Kuo said that despite the injuries, Chen Shui-bian remained in good spirits, cracking jokes as he watched the World Baseball Classic match between Taiwan and Cuba — which the home team lost 0-14 — saying that 014 represented former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) so it was no wonder Taiwan had lost.
Lin, who was secretary-general under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), is charged with taking NT$63 million (US$2.11 million) in bribes from Ti Yung Co owner Chen Chi-hsiang (陳啟祥) to help the latter’s company secure a slag treatment contract from a China Steel Corp subsidiary in July last year.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS