Taipei District prosecutors yesterday charged a doctor for causing the death of a patient after a female died while undergoing treatment that saw her lose 25kg in four months.
Prosecutors charged Lin Shao-an (林紹安) with causing death by occupational neglect after his patient, a 29-year-old surnamed Chang Yang (張楊), died from losing too much weight in too short a period of time.
Originally weighing 80kg, the National Theater and Concert Hall employee believed she was too fat and sought medical help at a well-known dieting clinic owned by Yang Ming-chuan (楊名權).
Lin, a physician at Yang’s clinic, and the clinic’s pharmacist, Yang Hua-rong (楊華榮), failed to take into account that the victim had previously been diagnosed with hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, and hyperlipidemia, or high levels of lipids in the blood, prosecutors allege.
In 2006, after taking dieting medication prescribed by Lin and administered by the clinic’s pharmacist, the victim shed 25kg and then died aged 29, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors did not indict Yang, because they did not believe he had any involvement in the victim’s death.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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