The youngest of the people injured in the explosions at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park last year — 13-year old Lee Chun-yi (李峻毅) — is to be discharged from hospital today after nine months of treatment, including 41 surgeries.
The disaster on the night of June 27 in New Taipei City’s Bali District killed 15 people and injured 499, including 248 who had burns to more than 40 percent of their body.
The injured people were taken to about 50 hospitals across the nation for treatment. The burns averaged 44 percent of the body among those admitted to hospitals for treatment after the fire at a Color Play Asia dance event.
Lee is the youngest person affected in the disaster and was transferred to Taipei Veterans General Hospital two days after being sent to another hospital, with burns to about 90 percent of his body, Taipei Veterans General Hospital said.
He had second and third-degree burns, the hospital said.
In his 276 days of hospitalization, Lee went through 41 surgeries, including seven skin grafts, and the insertion of a nasogastric tube and a catheter, but he was brave and did not refuse the treatments, nursing department head Kao Shu-fen (高淑雰) said.
Yesterday, the hospital held a party for Lee to celebrate his recovery and discharge.
It said that he had grown during his time in the hospital, being 154cm when admitted and 170cm today, while he gained 21kg, coming in at 39kg and leaving at 60kg.
Lee can only stand without support for a couple of minutes at a time and has severe burn scar contracture, the hospital said.
Lee’s mother said he had felt mentally and emotionally unbalanced at first, but gradually adjusted and now feels grateful that her son survived.
Although she knows Lee might not recover 100 percent, his mother said she encourages him to recover to 90 percent so he can play basketball again.
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