A year ago and far away from his hometown in New Hampshire, Alex Haas was fighting for his life after suffering burns to more than 90 percent of his body at an inferno at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙樂園) water park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里).
Flammable, colored corn starch was sprayed from a stage onto people dancing in a drained swimming pool. In an instant, the powder turned into a fireball that scattered burning dust onto Haas and many others. Investigators believe it came into contact with intense heat from the stage lighting and ignited.
A total of 508 people were injured on June 27, last year. Fifteen died. On April 27, the party organizer was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison.
Most of the wounded are out of hospital but need rehabilitation for physical and emotional scars, and a new burn treatment center is opening for them tomorrow. A memorial concert was held yesterday in Taiwan.
Haas, who was in Taiwan teaching English, was believed to be the only American injured.
Covered in bandages, he was in a medically induced coma for two weeks in a Taipei hospital. His family flew from the small town of Mont Vernon to be with him and feared for the worst.
Today, his scars are healing and he has regained most of his mobility. He can drive a car, walk his dog and work on his art projects.
“I feel like I’m well on my way to being back to me again,” Haas, 27, said in a recent interview at his home.
Haas remembers the day of the fire at the Formosa Fun Coast water park vividly, stepping into the dust — which kept re-igniting — his hair and beard catching on fire, running away.
He suffered burns to his hands, underarms, torso, knees, legs and feet. Slowly, he started to improve. After two months, he was able to return to the US, but he still needed lots of care to help with his wounds and movement.
He has had at least a dozen surgeries, including rounds of laser treatments for scars. He started those in December last year at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“A lot of the pain’s been going away,” he said.
Among those impressed with his recovery is Henry Lin (林昀毅), director of the government-funded burn rehabilitation and post-acute care center at the New Taipei City Hospital.
“He can do everything by himself,” Lin said in an e-mail. “I think the original acute care hospital in Taiwan, the continuous care hospital [in Massachusetts] and the local hospital who provided daily physical therapy all did wonderful jobs.”
Good family and social support, combined with Haas’ optimism, also helped, he said.
Lin recently visited Haas while spending time at various burn care centers in the US, including the Johns Hopkins Burn Center in Maryland.
His center and Johns Hopkins have agreed to establish a clinical, academic and educational collaboration.
Last year, Johns Hopkins visited 12 hospitals across Taiwan after the fire and returned this year to focus on the patients’ rehabilitation.
In Taiwan, a judge said party organizer Lu Chung-chi (呂忠吉) failed to take precautions to prevent the explosion.
The National Health Insurance Administration sued him, seeking NT$436 million (US$13.41 million) in compensation.
Haas’ family has been following the victims’ recovery, such as a teenage girl who was in the room next to him in the intensive care unit. They sent her a care package.
“Repairing the emotional burden of this tragedy is another task altogether and one that deserves our attention,” they said on Facebook. “We have all, victims family and many others been affected deeply by this tragedy and have been down a horrific road.”
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
RSS