Family members of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) rushed to the prison hospital in Greater Taichung yesterday upon receiving news that he had broken a bone in a fall on Saturday.
The former first lady, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), had already been informed and paid a visit to her husband over the weekend.
According to Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), son of the former president, his father fell and fractured the fibula, or calf bone, in his right leg.
Chen Chih-chung headed to Greater Taichung yesterday accompanied by his wife, Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), to see the incarcerated former president at the prison hospital.
Chen’s family have requested the former president’s son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘), who is an orthopedist, be allowed to attend to him.
Chen Chih-chung posted messages on Facebook on Monday accusing the prison hospital’s supervisors of negligence for not providing medical treatment to his father immediately, and said his father should have been transported to the hospital emergency ward after his fall.
By not doing so, the prison had violated its standard operating procedure, Chen Chih-chung said, accusing the Ministry of Justice of maltreating his father on purpose.
Janice Chen (陳昭姿), spokesperson of the former president’s medical team, said he is in pain and cannot walk because of the fracture.
She also accused the prison hospital of disregarding the situation and not paying attention to the patient.
In response, the prison hospital released a statement, according to which Chen Shui-bian fell down on the floor on Saturday morning and was taken for an X-ray examination.
“The hospital’s radiologist determined it was a slight fracture on the exterior of the fibula bone, but it was not a serious injury,” the statement said.
Prison hospital deputy warden Chao Chung-chih (趙崇智) said the former president made a telephone call to his son-in-law on Saturday to inform him of the fracture and he asked for Chao’s personal medical attention.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS