The Control Yuan has decided to impeach Ko Wen-che (柯文哲), the former head of National Taiwan University Hospital’s organ transplant task force, because the hospital used HIV-infected organs in four transplants last year. The Control Yuan passed a motion submitted by members Teresa Yin (尹祚芊) and Li Ful-dien (李復甸) to impeach Ko for dereliction of duty by an 8-2 vote, but it remains unclear if the move will have any tangible effect on Ko’s job.
“It doesn’t matter,” Ko said in response to the Control Yuan’s ruling.
The hospital accidentally transplanted HIV-positive organs from a Hsinchu man into four patients in August last year. A fifth organ from the man was used in an organ transplant at National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Tainan.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
As a doctor at a public hospital, Ko is subject to oversight by the Control Yuan, the government branch responsible for investigating and censuring irregular or illicit behavior by public servants and government agencies. The report said Ko neglected his duties by entrusting staff and organ donation coordinators who were not doctors with the responsibility of writing physician orders and interpreting examination reports, which violated the Physicians Act ( 醫師法). Ko neglected to review the organ donation examination results and did not follow the hospital’s normal specimen test regulations, the report added.
The Control Yuan also held Ko responsible for neglecting the training, supervision and evaluation of organ donation coordinators and for authorizing less-experienced coordinators to help with preparations before the transplant operations.
The physician’s negligence not only seriously damaged the health of organ recipients and medical staff engaged in the operations, it also greatly damaged the hospital’s reputation and Taiwan’s image, the report said.
Hospital spokesman Tan Ching-ting (譚慶鼎) said the hospital would respond after it had received and reviewed the report.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
A 23-year-old Taichung man vowed to drink more water after his heavy consumption of sugary tea landed him in hospital with a kidney infection and sepsis. The man, surnamed Lin (林), used to drink two cups of half-sugar oolong tea while working at a food stall, where he often had to wait a long time before urinating. Lin developed kidney stones and noticed blood in his urine, but ignored the issue after taking medication for three days. A month later, he went to the emergency room after experiencing a recurring fever and was diagnosed with a kidney infection that led to sepsis, landing
RSS