A descendent of a famous eunuch of the Ching Dynasty is suing a Taipei hospital for medical malpractice.
The "great great granddaughter" of Li Lien-ying (李蓮英), the Empress Dowager's (慈禧太后) court eunuch, has filed a NT$5 million suit against the Tri Service General Hospital (三軍總醫院), which she alleges misdiagnosed her son's testicular torsion as a simple stomachache.
Li Meige (李美格), whose great grandfather was adopted by the powerful imperial eunuch, emigrated with her son to Hong Kong from China in 1987 and moved to Taiwan in the early 1990s.
Li, an artist, earlier told Hong Kong media that she needed to sell her paintings to cover expenses of the lawsuit, which is now pending at the Taipei District Court.
Chan Chun-hung (
Under Taiwan's legal system, the complainant in a civil suit has to deposit before the trial 1 percent of the amount they seek to be awarded.
Based on this, Judge Chan said the court would not schedule a trial until Li pays the litigation fee.
According to Hong Kong media reports, Li and her son have been living in Taiwan since the early 1990s on subsidies from the Hong Kong government and income from her paintings.
Last October, Li took her son to the Tri Service General Hospital after complaining of pain in his stomach and genital region.
Li said her son was initially diagnosed as having stomachache, but three days later his testicles began to swell, after which doctors at the hospital told her they needed to perform surgery.
Li sought a second opinion and turned to National Taiwan University Hospital (
Li said the operation would have cost around NT$50,000 and that she could not afford to pay that much. Instead, she took her son back to Hong Kong for treatment.
Li accused the Tri Service General Hospital of malpractice and requested payment of NT$5 million in damages on behalf of her son.
However, the hospital re-sponded yesterday that it had done everything it could to treat Li's son and that it was confident the hospital would not be held liable.
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