An off-duty emergency doctor and his daughter provided critical first aid during a deadly stabbing attack in Taipei on Friday.
The attack by 27-year-old suspect Chang Wen (張文) unfolded in the early evening around Taipei Main Station’s M7 exit and later outside Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near MRT Zhongshan Station.
Chang threw smoke grenades and attacked people with a knife near the two metro hubs, killing three and leaving 11 injured.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Chang jumped from the roof of a department store while being chased by police and was pronounced dead on Friday night.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said that one of the injured victims asked the city government to help locate the “lifesavers” who had provided emergency medical assistance at the scene.
Authorities later confirmed that Yen Jui-sheng (顏瑞昇), an attending physician in the emergency medicine department at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), and his daughter, a first-year internal medicine resident, provided critical aid at the scene.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Yen said that saving lives is a doctor’s duty.
“I just thought the scene might need someone to help,” the former head of emergency medicine at NTUH’s Yunlin branch said. “I believe any emergency physician would have done the same.”
He said that he and his daughter were arriving at a restaurant near the Eslite Spectrum Nanxi store at about 6:55pm when they saw ambulances arriving.
“Both of us are doctors, and I am an emergency physician,” he said. “I felt I should go to the scene and see if I could provide assistance.”
After a brief discussion with his daughter, they headed to the site, where police, firefighters and medical personnel had already set up an orderly triage station with flags, he said.
Upon arrival, he said he identified himself to the incident commander and began triaging victims.
Aside from one person experiencing cardiac arrest, there were not many injured people on site initially, Yen said.
However, paramedics soon evacuated more injured people from the building, he said.
Although members of the public might have found the scene shocking or chaotic, emergency physicians are accustomed to such situations, he said.
“The command system, patient triage and treatment were all conducted to a very high standard,” Yen said.
“I hope the public can feel reassured and recover from this trauma as soon as possible,” he said, offering condolences to the victims’ families and wishing a swift recovery to those injured.
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