Kaohsiung authorities were yesterday investigating the death of a three-year-old girl who died of lung trauma after her father allegedly blew pressurized air into her mouth at a car wash in the city on Monday.
The father, surnamed Kuang (鄺), drove into a self-service car wash at a gas station, with the girl sitting in the front passenger seat, police said.
The girl was playing with an air gun at the car wash and accidentally blasted herself with pressurized air, Kuang later told police and doctors at a hospital, where the girl was pronounced dead after being taken there by her father.
However, the girl’s mother, who is divorced from Kuang, wrote on social media that “my daughter’s body is in the hospital morgue and we need to find out what happened to her.”
She said she suspects that Kuang was covering up the facts to avoid prosecution.
Hospital records showed that some of the girl’s internal tissues were swollen and her lungs were punctured.
She also had internal swelling in her face, neck and chest, the records showed.
Medical experts said the injuries suggest that she died of tension pneumothorax, in which air escapes into the chest cavity and causes the lungs to collapse, which was likely caused by the pressurized air gun.
Kuang said that the girl was playing with the air gun and injured herself, but security footage obtained from the gas station showed Kuang handling the air gun throughout the seven minutes of their stay, while the girl sat in the car.
After questioning staff at the gas station and collecting evidence, prosecutors said they suspect that Kuang placed the air gun’s nozzle in the girl’s mouth and blew pressurized air into her lungs.
Kuang was yesterday released after posting bail of NT$60,000.
Prosecutors said they intend to press charges against him on negligence resulting in death, as he had failed to watch over his daughter.
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