Several dozen people received burns over more than 80 percent of their bodies in a suspected explosion of colored powder that ignited a fire during a “Color Play Asia” party at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) park on Saturday night, with some in critical condition, physicians said yesterday.
A 19-year-old man surnamed Liu (劉) who received severe burns to 99 percent of his body has undergone a debridement of his wounds, but remained in the most critical condition, Taichung Veterans General Hospital said.
A woman surnamed Lee (李) received burns over 90 percent of her body and was being treated at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital in Taichung, as three others with second and third-degree burns in the hospital remained in danger, the hospital said.
Photo: Cheng Shu-ting, Taipei Times
An 18-year-old female student surnamed Chu (朱) received burns over 90 percent of her body and was being treated at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
“She is just a student. I feel that she is dying,” her father said in tears. “Everyone knows that cornstarch can be an explosion hazard. How could this happen?” he said.
The father, a taxi driver, said he learned of the blast from a radio news show while he was driving.
Photo: AFP
He called his daughter immediately, but could not reach her, he said.
“She told me she was going to Formosa Fun Coast when we were at lunch together,” he said.
Chu survived cardiac arrest before arriving at the hospital after cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed, but she remains in an unstable condition, hospital vice superintendent Hwang Shinn-jang (黃信彰) said.
Huang said that a burn of any depth that involves more than 20 percent of the total body surface area is defined as a major burn.
“The first 72 hours after onset of a mass burn situation are critical for the patient’s survival,” he added.
More than 100 physicians and nurses were called back to active duty on Saturday night at the hospital after 44 people were admitted, Huang said.
Among the 184 victims admitted to intensive care units, 20 were at Mackay Hospital in Taipei’s Tamsui District (淡水), which took 58 with burns over 60 to 80 percent of their bodies, hospital vice superintendent Shih Shou-chuan (施壽全) said.
“Although there is no life-threatening danger to the patients for the time being, they are at risk of developing complications,” Shih said.
“It is too unbearable,” a woman said when she the hospital told her of her son’s injuries.
Her 25-year-old son, surnamed Liu (劉), received burns to about 50 percent of his body, officials said.
She said her son and his girlfriend traveled to Taipei from Taichung to spend the weekend, adding that she initially did not know they went to the party.
A man surnamed Lin whose two sons were among the victims said that his family has decided to withhold the news of their conditions from their grandparents because they might not be able come to terms with the news.
The Lin brothers are hospitalized at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and Taipei Medical University Hospital respectively with burns covering about 70 percent of their bodies, he said.
His younger son is to be discharged from the military in October, he said.
Lin’s sister said that her family, like many others, has been running about to obtain information about where the victims are hospitalized, adding that they might initiate a self-help association to ensure that the organizers are held responsible.
A father who rushed to Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxiao Branch from Taoyuan said he was deeply distressed to hear that his son remained in intensive care.
Another man said that his family was not told which hospital is treating his son.
“We called several hospitals one after another and did not find out he was in this hospital until 3am [Sunday morning],” the man said.
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