A man serving his alternative military service died yesterday shortly after he collapsed while weeding, the National Conscription Agency said.
The 22-year-old serviceman, identified only by his surname, Chen (陳), collapsed and began convulsing shortly after 9am when he and some of his colleagues were weeding behind a restaurant at Chengkungling in Taichung.
Chen was given emergency treatment and rushed to a hospital, but resuscitation efforts failed and he was pronounced dead about one hour later.
The hospital initially said that his death could have been caused by a heart problem, but that an autopsy would be needed to determine further details.
National Conscription Agency head Lin Kou-enn (林國演) said Chen was an orderly and had a regular schedule in the military.
He had not been on duty the previous night.
Four or five other conscripts doing the weeding with Chen said they detected nothing unusual before he fainted.
The agency said Chen was drafted in October last year and had shown no abnormal physical conditions over the past eight months.
Chen was weeding in the shade of a tree, which should not have been difficult, Lin said.
The agency also said that the military has a risk factor system that takes into consideration the temperature and humidity level.
At the time of Chen’s collapse, the risk factor was 38, two points below the level of 40 that requires outdoor drills to be conducted in the shade and for conscripts to drink sufficient water, it said.
As heat exhaustion might have played a role in Chen’s death, Taipei Veterans General Hospital doctor Lai Chih-kuan (賴志冠) called for the public to be on guard after days of sweltering heat, adding that elderly people and those who have cardiopulmonary disease should avoid going outdoors and exposing themselves to the sun if the temperature reaches 35°C.
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