Five-year-old girl dies after falling on her chopsticks

A five-year-old girl from Sijhih (汐止), Taipei County, died after she fell down while running around with a chopstick in each hand, driving one of them through her throat and into her brain.

The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that the girl, surnamed Cheng (程), was having a dinner of noodles on the evening of April 31 when she began running around the room and subsequently fell down, lodging one of the chopsticks in her brain.

The girl died of her injuries after several days in intensive care at the Tri-Service Hospital in Neihu (內湖).

The Taoyuan District Prosecutor's office ruled that the death had been accidental and did not hold the parents responsible, the newspaper reported.

Edward Tsai (蔡光超), emergency room director of the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, called on parents to keep children from playing at mealtimes.

"Although this case is unusual, parents should not allow their children to play at mealtimes. There are many risk factors, including choking, when kids are not concentrating on their food," Tsai said.

"Accidents happen, but they are also often preventable," the doctor said.

In the case of a deep penetrating injury, it is of the utmost importance not to disturb the object until the patient has been delivered into the hands of medical professionals, Tsai said.

"The most important thing is to keep whatever object that has been thrust into the body as still as possible to minimize damage," he said.

Tsai cited a case from last month in which a Taichung-area child removed a 14cm shard of glass that had penetrated his heart when a glass door shattered.

The boy died after massive blood loss.