22-member medical team formed to care for ex-president Chen
Central News Agency
2015-01-06 10:38 PM
Kaohsiung, Jan. 6 (CNA) Kaohsiung has put together a 22-member team of medical professionals to look after former President Chen Shui-bian following his release under medical parole from Taichung Prison on Monday. Ho Chi-kung, head of Kaohsiung's municipal health department, said Tuesday that Chen's health will be the responsibility of doctors from two local hospitals, 10 from Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and 12 from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital.
Chen Chao-long (no relation to the former president) and Lai Wen-ter, the superintendents of the two hospitals, will serve as the conveners of the team. The doctors onboard include neurologists, chest experts, urologists, psychiatrists and rehabilitation specialists, according to Ho.
Former President Chen Shui-bian was temporarily released from Taichung Prison, where he has been serving a 20-year sentence for corruption, Monday afternoon after which he headed to his home in Kaohsiung for the first time in over six years. Doctors have said he is suffering from an array of symptoms including urinary incontinence and brain decline.
The Agency of Corrections, which granted his month-long medical parole on doctors' recommendation, stressed that the ex-president's release is temporary and he will be required to return to prison once his condition stabilizes.
Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's first president from an opposition party during his two terms from 2000 to 2008, began serving his prison sentence on Nov. 11, 2010, but he had been detained for nearly two years prior to that while prosecutors were investigating the cases against him.
(By Wang Shu-fen and Lilian Wu)
