Hopes that the battered little girl surnamed Chiu would wake from her coma have been dashed. On Sunday the four-year-old was pronounced brain dead. Her parents have donated Chiu's organs so that her misfortune may now save the lives of other children.
The case, which has caused considerable anger around the country, started with brutal abuse but did not end there. The child's parents had split up, and her father, an unemployed alcoholic, assaulted Chiu while drunk, causing severe head injuries. This was not the first time Chiu had suffered such abuse, and one of the many tragedies in this saga is that neighbors did not report this case to the Department of Social Affairs or other child welfare agencies earlier.
What started out as a case of domestic violence took on greater implications after the negligence of the Municipal Jen Ai Hospital was exposed. In Taipei City, which boasts the best medical resources in the country, Chiu, whose injury status was unclear, was refused admission to a series of facilities before finally being rushed to a hospital 200km away in Taichung. Precious time needed to save her life was wasted.
Lin Chih-nan (林致男), a surgeon who was on duty at the Municipal Jen Ai Hospital on the night Chiu was brought in, originally claimed to have followed hospital procedures in refusing to admit Chiu because no post-op beds were available.
However, the director of the Taipei City Government's department of health, Chang Heng (張珩), later revealed that Lin had not even reviewed patient X-rays before signing her transfer order to another hospital. He was subsequently alleged to have altered medical records and to have forged the signature of the presiding physician.
The case has therefore turned into a general indictment of medical ethics. An investigation by the Taipei City Government has revealed more inconsistencies, and this has led to accusations of inadequate management at the highest levels of the city government. Chiu's mother is reported to be suing the Taipei City Government for compensation, and this is only right and proper.
Procedural failures also brought the operations of the national Emergency Operations Center into question, which suggests that a review of the center's procedures might be appropriate.
If anything can be salvaged from this disgraceful series of events, it is that Chiu's death will lead to improved emergency care and coordination. Her death has put a spotlight on issues such as child welfare in single-parent families, support for the unemployed, awareness of the need for state intervention in cases of child abuse, paralysis in emergency-response operations, inflexible hospital operational procedures, medical ethics overwhelmed by the profit motive and deficiencies in the administration of the city government.
If this country can learn its lesson and make the necessary changes, the death of Chiu could save the lives of a number of children and other patients whose less dramatic deaths might otherwise have disappeared behind doctored paperwork and buck-passing bureaucrats.
Although her life was short, Chiu might end up unwittingly performing a service of tremendous importance. But this also depends on Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers
Gogoro Inc was once a rising star and a would-be unicorn in the years prior to its debut on the NASDAQ in 2022, as its environmentally friendly technology and stylish design attracted local young people. The electric scooter and battery swapping services provider is bracing for a major personnel shakeup following the abrupt resignation on Friday of founding chairman Horace Luke (陸學森) as chief executive officer. Luke’s departure indicates that Gogoro is sinking into the trough of unicorn disillusionment, with the company grappling with poor financial performance amid a slowdown in demand at home and setbacks in overseas expansions. About 95