Tens of thousands of netizens yesterday signed an online petition initiated by a group of doctors calling for the resignation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) as chairman of the Taiwan Medical Association, saying that the lawmaker’s accusations against National Taiwan University Hospital’s (NTUH) organ transplant procedures insulted the medical industry as a whole.
The initiators of the petition included NTUH’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology attending physician Shih Jin-chung (施景中), Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital’s Division of Urology attending physician Tsai Hsiu-nan (蔡秀男), Changhua Christian Hospital pediatrician Chien Jien-wen (錢建文) and Taipei Municipal Gan-Dau Hospital’s Division of Family Medicine doctor Fang Jui-wen (方瑞雯).
It was launched at 10pm on Thursday, hours after Su and another KMT physician-turned-legislator, Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟), accused the NTUH — the nation’s leading hospital — of having given high doses of phentolamine and heparin to dozens of trauma patients in the past 15 years to cause them to die, for the sole purpose of making them eligible as organ donors and deceiving district prosecutors into issuing their death certificates.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The pair insinuated that the hospital used drugs to cause cardiac arrest in the patients before they were declared brain dead, and then connected them to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine to improve the viability of their organs.
The accusations are perceived as an attempt to tarnish the integrity of physician-turned-independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who once served as convener of the hospital’s organ procurement team and was the director of its emergency care team for a time from 2008.
“Su’s move to spread unverified rumors degrading to the medical community in the legislature suggests that he is no longer fit to serve as chairman of the Taiwan Medical Association. We request that Su focus on his job as a lawmaker and immediately resign his chairmanship,” the petition said.
It said that Su’s tarnishing of the medical profession’s reputation and his unfounded accusations have unnerved the public, saddened the families of organ donors and impeded the nation’s future developments in organ procurement and transplantation.
“We urge Su to hand over the chairmanship and apologize for launching a smear campaign against the nation’s organ donation system,” the petition said.
At press time last night, the petition — at www.facebook.com/events/744223215651746 — had more than 20,000 signatures.
Other doctors also took to Facebook to vent their discontent at the lawmakers’ accusations.
Wan Fang Hospital’s Surgery Department deputy director Li Shao-jung (李紹榕) said that when a person’s heart suddenly stops beating, blood and oxygen cannot be transported to the body’s vital organs.
“In this condition, phentolamine is injected to cause blood vessels to expand and thus increase blood flow to tissue and organs, while heparin is administered to prevent blood clots... These drugs are definitely not the demons the two physician-turned-legislators claim them to be,” Lee said.
Lee said the fact that someone who represents the Taiwan Medical Association would believe unsubstantiated rumors and that the nation’s most reputable hospital would tolerate “purposeful murder of its patients” is a disgrace to the medical community as a whole.
Min Sheng General Hospital Division of Neurosurgery director Antonio Carlos Ko (柯紹華) said that as a neurosurgeon and a physician accredited to determine brain death, he found Su’s remarks utterly intolerable.
Antonio Carlos Ko called Su “a self-proclaimed doctor hiding behind the immunity bestowed upon him by his job as a legislator and questioning the endeavors made by other medical professionals in the field of organ donation.”
“He accused his fellow doctors of retrieving patients’ organs while they were still alive, and claimed that there have been cases in which brain-dead patients regained consciousness and returned to a normal life,” he said.
The cases Su mentioned were of people who were in a deep coma rather than brain dead, Antonio Carlos Ko said, adding that trained doctors are expected to know the difference.
“It is evident that Su has sought to distort facts and used his medical knowledge as leverage to launch political attacks,” Antonio Carlos Ko said.
In response, Su said in a statement issued later yesterday that while the timing of his accusations might seem inappropriate, the NTUH’s alleged wrongdoings would deal a heavier blow to the image of the medical industry if he had chosen to remain silent and cover for the hospital.
“There will be no medical advances without transparency. Was not a lack of transparency in the government’s handling of the recent food scares ... that forced the former minister of health and welfare [Chiu Wen-ta, (邱文達)] and the former director of the Food and Drug Administration [Yeh Ming-kung (葉明功)] to step down?” Su said.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
RSS