Child Abuse Lapses of Taiwan NewsChild Abuse Lapses 2008/2/1

Child Abuse Lapses 2008/2/1

Taipei's Department of Social Welfare is facing a probe after admitting to lapses in its handling of a recent high-profile case of suspected child abuse. Despite doctors’ suspicions of child abuse, the department allowed a three-year-old to return to her family last week, claiming doctors at Taiwan’s top hospital had cleared her return. After the hospital denied the department’s version of events Thursday however, officials admitted they had failed to properly protect the child who is now in government care.##

X-rays revealed the three year old girl left leg was broken after she was brought into Taipei Hospital on Jan. 23. With the girl also covered in what appeared to be cigarette burns, doctors determined there was sufficient suspicion of child abuse.

Dr. Cai Jhuo-cheng

Taipei Hospital ER Chief

This thing here is the combination of an old and a recent fracture, said Dr. Cai Jhuo-cheng, head of the ER department at Taipei Hospital. How can a two or three-year-old girl keep getting bone fractures?

Concerned about the girl’s welfare, doctors reported the case to the domestic violence center. Taipei City’s Department of Social Welfare ruled however that the case did not constitute domestic violence and did not intervene after the girl’s family secretly took her home from the hospital. The department claimed that doctors at National Taiwan University Hospital had cleared the girl to return to her family. But NTU Hospital publicly denied the claims Thursday, saying the department had not subjected her to a proper examination.

Lin Jyun-faNTU College of MedicineNo such thing ever happened, said Lin Jyun-fa from NTU’s College of Medicine. Employees from the Department of Social Welfare consulted our doctors. In other words, they did not go through the administrative process for an official examination

The department again retrieved the girl from her family after media reports began emerging on Wednesday. She remains in government care. With city officials admitting they failed to follow the proper procedure during the original examination, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin has called for a full investigation into the Department of Social Welfare’s handling of the issue.