Two hundred-and-eleven of the nearly 500 people injured in the dust explosion and ensuing fire at New Taipei City’s Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park on Saturday night last week were in critical condition as of yesterday, 27 more than the day before, according to figures released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Out of a total of 495 people sent to hospitals after the incident, 449 remain hospitalized, official statistics showed. Two of the injured people died earlier this week.
Among the survivors, many of whom sustained burns to more than 50 percent of their bodies, staying alive and recovering will be a long and arduous process, doctors have said.
Screen grab from Chen’s Facebook
Lu Yi-ming (呂意銘), a sophomore at Vanung University in Taoyuan who suffered burns to more than 90 percent of his body, began to breathe on his own late on Tuesday after having been on a ventilator for three days.
The news of Lu making a recovery, described by his doctors as “miraculous,” and a newly recorded message of hope by a 20-year-old college student who suffered burns to 55 percent of his body have brought some encouragement to those suffering the harrowing ordeal.
In the message recorded with the help of his girlfriend, Harry Chen (陳勁綸) told his friends and family “not to worry.”
Chen, who is now in his fifth day recovering in an intensive care unit (ICU) at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, said that cleaning his wounds and putting on new dressings “is very painful,” but realized he had little choice.
In a video uploaded to Facebook, the National Taiwan Sport University sophomore said he has made it his goal to recover quickly so he can be the second of the fiery explosions’ victims being treated at the hospital in New Taipei City to get back on his feet.
Meanwhile, hospitals treating burn patients said they are challenged by staffing shortages, despite mobilizing all related departments since patients were rushed to emergency rooms.
Talking to the press about the situation over the past few days, a spokesman for Taipei Veterans General Hospital said that all 456 nurses at the hospital’s 14 intensive care units have been working in shifts around the clock, because tending to the burns patients has demanded more than double the ward’s usual staff.
Dressing the wounds of a severe burn patient requires from eight to 10 medical personnel to work for an average 1.5 hours, he said.
In addition to the staff of the plastic and reconstructive surgery department, doctors and nurses of the surgical department and otolaryngology and oral surgery have joined forces to treat burns patients.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said that after the incident, a total of 18 doctors and 165 nurses in private practice have contacted the ministry to volunteer their help.
The ministry has asked all public and private hospitals to request those who have retired or left the profession to return to their old posts to alleviate the personnel shortage.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS