Two boys from Sao Tome and Principe are recovering well from serious burns after nearly a month of treatment in Taiwan, officials said yesterday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and Sao Tome and Principe Ambassador Jorge Amado were expected to visit the boys later in the day.
The boys, both seven years old, had life-threatening tissue adhesions when their conditions came to the attention of a Taiwanese medical team in the African ally country in the middle of March, according to Samuel Chen (陳士良), director-general of the ministry’s Department of African Affairs.
PHOTO: CNA
With the ministry's assistance, the two boys were brought to Taiwan on April 11 for treatment at Taipei's Wan Fang Hospital, Chen said.
Chen Chieh-feng (陳傑峰), head of the hospital's plastic surgery center, said that one of the boys had suffered third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body in an oil tank explosion.
He could barely stretch his arms as a result of muscle contraction, but his range of motion increased from just 20 degrees to 160 degrees after several skin grafts, Chen Chieh-feng said.
The other boy had sustained burns to the backs of his knees after spilling and igniting an oil container, leaving him unable to bend his knees, the doctor said. The patient can now stretch his knees straight and can also jump on one foot, he added.
He said that Sao Tome and Principe has a serious shortage of medical resources, with 120,000 people served by only 40 doctors on average, only one of whom is a surgeon.
The boys’ mothers, who accompanied them to Taiwan, are extremely grateful to Taiwan for the humanitarian assistance provided to their sons, he added.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry