Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was criticized yesterday for sending a traveler who collapsed after arriving from China to a regional hospital that lacked key emergency equipment, the latest in a series of complaints about the airport’s management.
Family members of the 80-year-old woman surnamed Chou (周), who died on Sunday, accused the airport of ignoring their desire to send her to Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital after she fainted at the arrival terminal.
They said that when people traveling with the patient asked that she be sent to the biggest medical center in the area, the ambulance driver refused because the airport was bound by contract with Landseed Hospital, a regional teaching hospital. The family said that Landseed Hospital’s attitude was poor and complained that it did not have an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine they believe would have given Chou a chance to survive.
Wu Ching-pyng (吳清平), an attending physician at Landseed Hospital, said the patient did not have any vital signs when she arrived at the facility. Though he did call other, larger hospitals to try to get access to an ECMO machine, Wu said his pleas were rejected because the other hospitals felt the machine would not help the patient.
Chou died of pneumonia--induced septic shock, Wu said.
Civil Aeronautics Administration Vice Director Lee Wan-lee (李萬里) said the agency would investigate the family’s claims.
The airport has come under fire since late June when a jetway collapsed at Terminal 2.
In early July, the airport again drew attention when staffers at the central control room were caught holding a party with alcoholic beverages while on duty.
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