A 21-year-old woman died yesterday of severe burns and complications five months after she was injured in the Color Play Asia disaster at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里).
Wu Wen-chi’s (吳玟錡) death brings the toll from the June 27 fire to 15, with most of the people killed aged in their early 20s.
Wu, one of more than 500 victims of the fire, suffered burns to 87.5 percent of her body and had skin and tissue surgery the day after she was injured, the Taipei Veterans General Hospital said.
However, over the past five months she developed multiple complications, including septic shock and acute respiratory distress syndrome, the hospital said.
On Aug. 15 Wu was placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a machine that functions like an artificial lung, the hospital said.
Doctors performed cardiac surgery on Saturday after the patient went into heart failure, but she subsequently suffered septic shock and multiple organ failure, the hospital said.
Wu was released from hospital in critical condition at 2:30am yesterday and died at 3:36am at her home after an endotracheal tube was removed, the hospital said.
She was the 15th person to have died since the June 27 incident at the water park.
A fire erupted when colored cornstarch powder that was being used for party effects ignited. About 500 people, most of them in their teens and early 20s, were injured in the fire.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital said it had treated 43 people, six of whom had sustained burns to more than 80 percent of their bodies. Six of the 43 burns victims are still hospitalized, but are improving, the hospital said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese