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Couple suspect that accident at hospital led to baby's death

The parents of a premature infant who died last month questioned yesterday the assessment by Taipei Veterans' General Hospital that she died of natural causes after video footage showed a cart carrying the baby at the hospital collapsed twice.

At a press conference held by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲), the parents said they suspected the death was a result of the metal cart her incubator was transported on collapsing twice en route to the emergency room from the ambulance.

The parents, surnamed Wu, said that when they took their complaint to hospital authorities, they initially denied that the cart had collapsed and said the infant died nine days later of "sickness resulting from natural causes," the parents said.

Prior to the baby's death, the infant suffered massive hemorrhaging in the brain and elsewhere, the father was told.

The father of the child said on the day the cart allegedly collapsed, he was parking his car when he heard a crashing sound twice.

"I did not debate the issue at the time, I didn't want everyone to be talking to me instead of trying to treat my daughter," he told the press conference. "Afterwards, the hospital's public relations staff said the cart had only tilted and said we were exaggerating, but the footage tells the story."

In the footage from a security camera, which was shown at the press conference, the cart is seen being pushed into the hospital. The cart, with the incubator on top, fell over near the entrance, apparently causing the monitors attached to the incubator to go dark.

Seconds after being propped up again by staff pushing the cart, the cart collapsed again.

Huang called for the hospital to apologize and launch a probe into whether the impact from the fall had resulted in injuries that led to the baby's death.

Neither the head of the hospital nor the chief attending physician in the case were at the press conference. The head of the hospital's volunteer department, Chen Bao-min (陳寶民), represented the hospital and said the incubator was padded and that one of the doctors present had her hand beneath the baby's head when the cart fell over.

The case is now proceeding to court.

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