Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption at Taipei Prison, received treatment for degenerative joint disease from his son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), in jail on Thursday.
Taipei City Councilor Chiang Chih-ming (江志銘), who accompanied Chao during the visit, said Chao injected hyaluronic acid into Chen’s left knee joint to try to alleviate the degenerative disease that has caused Chen to limp.
Chao, an orthopedic surgeon at Sin-Lau Hospital in Greater Tainan, only treated Chen’s left knee joint this time because it has shown more serious degeneration than the right one, Chiang said.
The treatment was made at the former first family’s own expense.
Chao wore a baseball cap and kept his head down when leaving the prison. He did not answer questions from reporters.
It was the first time Chao had visited his father-in-law in prison.
Meanwhile, Chiang said Chen’s family has also submitted a request to have Chen receive medical checkups and treatment again at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou (林口), near Taipei.
Taipei Prison has yet to decide whether to allow Chen to be treated at the hospital or to have doctors treat him in the prison.
Chen received a medical checkup at the hospital in Linkou in late May. In March, he underwent an angiogram at Taoyuan General Hospital after complaining of discomfort in his chest.
During another visit to the hospital in April, he was found to have tumors.
After the former president underwent a follow-up medical checkup in May, doctors said the two tumors detected in Chen’s seminal vesicle were nonmalignant blood clots.
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