Taipei police apprehended a plastic surgeon on suspicion of medical malpractice on Wednesday evening, hours after a man died under anesthesia following a penis enlargement procedure.
The deceased, who was about 50 years old, had surgery at Pretty World (安和美) clinic from 10am to 2pm before dying during bed rest of unknown causes at 7pm that day, a Taipei Police Department Zhongshan Precinct spokesperson said.
First responders confirmed that the patient was dead and contacted the police, they said.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
Officers at the scene arrested Ting Pin-huang (丁斌煌), referred him to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on a manslaughter charge and requested a coroner’s inquest on the death.
A Taipei Department of Health spokesperson said that officials conducted seven audits of the clinic and fined it a total of NT$270,000 for multiple breaches, and did not rule out permanently shuttering the clinic, they said.
Inspectors are collecting potential evidence that might point to breaches of rules governing labeling, medical record-keeping, patient charges and management of pharmaceuticals, police said.
The death is the latest in a series of health emergencies related to cosmetic procedures that critics said highlighted the lack of regulations for the field in Taiwan.
Citing High Court Judge Liao Chien-yu (廖建瑜), The Reporter in January said that cosmetic procedure-related incidents had resulted in more criminal convictions than any other type of medicine between 2016 and 2019.
Many mishaps resulting in death or serious debilitation have occurred in the field over the past few years, including botched anesthesia, misuse of medical drugs, unproven procedures and false advertisements.
Last year, a 49-year-old Taipei woman died under sedation while undergoing a cosmetic procedure, and another clinic was found to have forged medical consent forms of a patient who had necrosis after a fat-dissolving injection.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare last month issued a public warning against exosome therapy, which has not been approved for medical use, but is reportedly being offered by many clinics.
Doctors who are not specifically trained in cosmetic surgery are allowed to practice in Taiwan, as regulators have not established certification standards for the field, Taiwan Society for Dermatological and Aesthetic Surgery chairman Tsai Ren-yu (蔡仁雨) said.
Taiwan does not require psychological tests to ensure a person’s mental competency to undergo certain cosmetic procedures, such as breast enlargement, Chinese Society for Cosmetic Surgery and Anti-Aging Medicine executive director Sung Feng-i (宋奉宜) said.
The regulatory oversight significantly contributes to Taiwan’s chaotic cosmetic surgery scene, where people could get unnecessary procedures due to the pressures of fierce market competition, he said.
The government in 2017 attempted to regulate cosmetic surgery, but the effort failed, as it lacked a clear legal mandate and became the subject of controversy, Ministry of Health and Welfare Department of Medical Affairs Director-General Liu Yueh-ping (劉越萍) said.
The certification for cosmetic surgeons is inadequate and many doctors are practicing without a certificate, she said.
Likou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s urology department deputy head Chen Yu (陳煜) said that death from penile girth or length enhancement surgery is an “unheard of outcome.”
“I do not know the details of this incident, but inherent risks to surgical anesthesia exist, and they can be compounded if the patient suffers from pre-existing cardiovascular conditions that went undiscovered,” he said.
Complications from such procedures are uncommon and are rarely more serious than a minor infection, Chen said.
Additional reporting by Tsai Kai-heng
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS