Taiwan lauded for low casualties in explosion treatment

2016/06/07

Taiwan’s successful medical achievement in treating burn victims following the flash-fire at Formosa Fun Coast Park last June in New Taipei City won praise at a symposium on treating massive burn casualties held by the Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection under the European Commission in Brussels in late May.

The Taiwan delegation, led by Wang Tsung-hsi, director of Medical Affairs at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, shared the island’s experience after the incident, which left 499 injured, including more than 200 with burn areas of over 40 percent, and more than 20 with burn areas over 80 percent.

There have been several terrorist attacks in France and Belgium in recent years, leaving hundreds dead and injured. With so many incidents at the same time, the local hospitals could not accommodate the victims and had to send them to other countries. Delays in the immediate treatment of the patients, together with incomplete medical resources, pushed the mortality rate up to 20 percent to 50 percent. This compared to the death of 15 victims, or a mortality rate of 3 percent, for the Formosa Fun Coast Park flash-fire.

“That is why Taiwan was invited to the conference because they want to know how we did it,” Wang said.

The conference was attended by over 20 European countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, Romania and the U.K. Taiwan was the only non-European country invited.

Wang said she delivered an hour-long speech on the government’s contingency measures in treating a large number of burns victims, cost allocation of medical health care, import of large patches of artificial skins grafts and medicines, and emergency dispatch of albumin.

Other delegation members, Tai Hao-chih, chief of the plastic surgery division at National Taiwan University Hospital, and Yang Jui-yong, burn specialist at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, shared the scheduling of intensive care units and burn ward beds among hospitals on the island, as well as mutual support of medical human resources among the medical facilities.

According to Wang, representatives of World Health Organization were also present at the conference to listen to the Taiwan experience in managing the health care needs of patients affected by the flash-fire.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=245406&ctNode=2194&mp=9)