Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) collapsed for the fourth time since being incarcerated, prompting concerns over his deteriorating health, Chen’s all-volunteer medical group said yesterday
Kuo Cheng-deng (郭正典), one of the doctors in the group, said Chen had been about to answer a call of nature at about 7:30pm when — as happened in the previous incidents — he lost his balance and fell onto a sofa close to his bed, hitting his head on a cell wall in the process.
Chen’s aides helped him up and brought him to the bed to rest, Kuo said, adding that the former president lost the urge to visit the restroom for several hours after the fall.
Kuo said that Chen told him it had not been so much a serious fall as a stumble, but that he had felt sick and experienced a tightness in his chest, though he had not fainted.
Kuo added that Chen’s daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), and her husband, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), had visited A-bian on Sunday.
During the visit, Chao, a doctor, diagnosed the former president with a fracture in the last vertebra of his coccyx, strain injuries in the muscles near both of his shoulder joints and contusions below his left knee, which were sustained in his third fall on Feb. 28.
Chen Shui-bian first fell down in prison on Jan. 13, injuring some muscles in his right shoulder.
Chao has a degree in orthopedic surgery and did his residency at National Taiwan University Hospital from 1998 to 2003.
Kuo said that Chao planned to visit the former president again on Sunday to try and ameliorate his physical pain.
Kuo said that despite the injuries, Chen Shui-bian remained in good spirits, cracking jokes as he watched the World Baseball Classic match between Taiwan and Cuba — which the home team lost 0-14 — saying that 014 represented former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) so it was no wonder Taiwan had lost.
Lin, who was secretary-general under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), is charged with taking NT$63 million (US$2.11 million) in bribes from Ti Yung Co owner Chen Chi-hsiang (陳啟祥) to help the latter’s company secure a slag treatment contract from a China Steel Corp subsidiary in July last year.
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
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
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
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS