Six men were found guilty and sentenced to short prison terms for an attack on Yang Ming Hospital in Chiayi in April after one of the men felt he had not been treated courteously by hospital staff.
The Chiayi District Court found the six guilty of violent conduct for using baseball bats to smash the glass doors at the hospital’s front entrance, and sentenced them to between two and three month in jail, convertible to fines.
Tsai Fu-chen (蔡富宸), a 21-year-old Chiayi resident, was determined to be the instigator of the incident, the court ruling said.
He had sought treatment at the hospital for a cold, but felt the hospital counter staff had been rude to him, so he asked five friends to help him get revenge.
Four of the five are in their 20s, while one, surnamed Lai (賴), is 18.
The six arrived at the hospital about 9pm that night on motor scooters, wearing hats and face masks to try to disguise their identities and carrying baseball bats.
Tsai led his friends in smashing the doors and glass panels at the hospital’s main entrance, frightening doctors, nurses, staff and other people in the area at the time, before fleeing on the scooters, the court said.
However, Chiayi police were able to identify Tsai and the others and took them in for questioning.
The court verdict said the prison terms could be commuted to fines at the rate of NT$1,000 per day.
Tsai’s case is not the only recent one of “hospital rage.”
On Saturday last week, a man tried to assault a physician at the hospital emergency ward in Yunlin County, but other staff members were able to subdue him before he hurt anyone.
The man was reportedly drunk and had injured himself, and became agitated after being taken to the hospital. Police were called to the scene.
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