Legislative elections and referendums: Photojournalist in coma after fall

A photojournalist working for Hong Kong's Asia Television was in a coma at press time yesterday after falling from a moving car while covering an election rally in Kaohsiung.

Li Dongjie (李東杰), 45, suffered internal bleeding and swelling of the brain from the fall and was being treated in the intensive care unit at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital.

Li covering a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) campaign rally when he fell from a car that was just in front of a vehicle in which KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), KMT legislative candidate Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Ma's campaign manager Steve Chan (詹啟賢) were campaigning in the city's Zuoying (左營) and Nanzih (楠梓) districts.

Li unconscious after falling on his back from the moving vehicle full of reporters.

Chan, a former dean of Chi Mei Hospital, immediately performed first aid on Li before an ambulance arrived and rushed him to the hospital where he underwent two-hour brain surgery.

Li found to be suffering from serious internal bleeding in the left hemisphere of his brain and on his encephalon and he was also suffering from hydrocephalus when he arrived at the hospital at approximately 9:30am, a brain surgeon at the hospital, Hung Chun-lung (洪純隆), said.

Ma appointed staffers to offer Li assistance at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Li's two sisters Li Wanrong (李婉容) and Li Xiaojuan (李小娟) arrived in Kaohsiung at 5pm yesterday.

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a press release yesterday that the government would provide all necessary assistance to the Li family. The council's office in Hong Kong had contacted Li's family soon after the incident and coordinated with the Immigration Office on their entry formalities.

The statement said that the Kaohsiung City government and Kaohsiung Association of Travel Agents president Lin Shang-chih (林尚志) would help Li's family during their stay in the city.

Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) sent his deputy, Lu Chin-jung (盧慶榮), to the hospital on his behalf.

Shieh concern for the injured photojournalist and called on all media workers to pay more attention to their own safety.

With more than 100 journalists from overseas in Taiwan to cover the election the last thing the administration would want to see is any more reporters being injured, Shieh said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN