More to the story
As the anesthesiologist in Yang Chih-yao's (
Your story reported me saying that I had warned Yang's father of the risk that anesthesia could cause an infection during the surgery and Yang's father saying that I was telling lies because "No doctor advised against the surgery."
I wish to reiterate that I did explain sincerely before the procedure the potential risks of both surgery and anesthesia.
Yang suffered from a kind of congenital heart disease called "tetralogy of fallot." He did not develop a normal pulmonary vasculature, which meant that his lungs did not experience adequate blood-gas exchange during ventilation. The management of such cases is always a challenge and a stress for an anesthesiologist.
The operation itself, not the anesthesia, causes bacteremia (germs in the blood) which will potentially cause endocarditis or even brain infection after surgery. The anesthetics used during the operation will potentially compromise the heart function, which had already deteriorated.
I explained all of this to his father without using medical jargon or any form of "professional arrogance" before the operation. It is true that I did not stop his father from consenting to the procedure. That decision is ultimately the family's, based on the judgement of the surgeon.
Yang Chih-yao did awake from anesthesia and recovered well in our pediatric intensive-care unit until the moment after he was extubated.
I told the media at a press conference held by Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (
What concerns me is the words you used in you report -- they really hurt my feelings. I am also concerned English-speaking readers will develop a negative image of me when they read this report.
I did my graduate study at the University of Minnesota and lived there for years. I know how important one's honesty and credibility are. I do hope that you can report my viewpoint.
Shen Jeng-tieng
Attending anesthesiologist,
Tri-Service General Hospital
KK is not the answer
Sun Ta-chien's (
First, KK is a university linguistics-pronunciation guide and is only appropriate for university linguistics classes. It should not be used in any lower-level class.
Second, students starting to learn English should be taught that every letter has a sound, or at least has significance. For example, "b" says buh, "k" says kuh, "p" says puh, in a very similar manner to bopomofo. To say that this works only in English-speaking countries is nonsense. Taiwanese teachers can't teach what they don't know, and most know KK, not natural phonics.
I have a class that started a year ago. I started from ABC. My students knew nothing. Now, they are reading just fine using natural phonics. I had a student join for a time who had studied KK previously. He was gloriously confused between the KK symbols and the ABCs. He couldn't spell simple words. A different approach might be appropriate, but to teach KK in beginners' classes would be a very serious mistake and leave the nation further behind in English-language education than it already is.
Not wanting to close on a negative note, I would like to congratulate the common people on the street who make an effort to speak English with me. The construction worker, the lunchbox cook, the gas station attendant and many others. Keep working. Taiwan will soon be an English-speaking country. (And it will happen even sooner if you can ditch KK altogether.)
Shervin Marsh
Ilan County
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