The number of fatalities from the June 27 fire at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park rose to 13, after a 20-year-old man died at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital yesterday afternoon.
Wang Wei-po (王韋博), a student at Fu Jen Catholic University’s Sport Recreation Management Program, suffered burns to 70 percent of his body in the fire.
On June 28, Wang underwent an emergency escharotomy, a surgical incision into a burn scar intended to lessen its pull on the surrounding tissue, on all four limbs.
He also underwent several debridement surgeries.
Over the past four months, Wang developed multiple complications, including infections, pneumonia, bacteremia, septic shock and kidney failure, the hospital said.
Wang, son of Formosa Fun Coast Water Park Victims’ Family Coalition spokeswoman Tang Mei-na (唐美娜), was treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation earlier this month, but died of cardiorespiratory failure at 12:10pm, it said.
Wang was among the 508 people injured in the fire at the park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里). The disaster occurred when colored cornstarch powder dispensed into the crowd exploded into flames, engulfing partygoers, most of them in their teens and 20s, in a wall of fire.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital took 43 of the victims, including six who had sustained burns to more than 80 percent of their bodies. Nine patients remain in critical condition, it added.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said that as of yesterday, 44 victims remain hospitalized nationwide, including 11 in intensive care units and nine who are listed as terminally ill.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition