《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Donor helps ill Japanese visitor to return home

By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

A 50-year-old Japanese visitor who fell unconscious earlier this month after suffering a brain hemorrhage returned home on a medical charter flight on Tuesday night thanks to financial assistance from an anonymous entrepreneur, the Tung’s Taichung Metroharbor Hospital said yesterday.

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The man, surnamed Kawauchi, arrived on a business trip on July 2. He was on a flight heading back to Japan on July 5 when he suddenly passed out, forcing the plane to turn back to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Kawauchi was subsequently rushed to Taoyuan’s Landseed Hospital for emergency treatment, where he was diagnosed with a brain stem hemorrhage and placed on life support. He has been unconscious ever since.

The man’s wife and daughter flew to Taiwan upon hearing of his condition.

They had wanted to take him back home on a medical chartered flight for further treatment, but had been unable to do so due to the high cost of such a service.

Lu Li-hua （盧立華）, chief executive officer of the hospital’s International Medical Service Center, which arranged the medical flight, said the anonymous good Samaritan donated approximately NT$1.6 million （US$53,300） to the center on Tuesday morning, saying he wanted to help the man return to his home safely and as quickly as possible.

“The donor is the proprietor of a business organization who once injured his cervical vertebra in Japan. He said he would not have been able to return to Taiwan in one piece were it not for the attentive care he received at a local hospital,” Lu said.

Lu quoted the entrepreneur as saying that he could relate to the predicament Kawauchi and his family were going through and he wanted to donate the money as a way of thanking the Japanese medical staff who helped save his life years ago.

Kawauchi’s flight left at about 8pm on Tuesday night and he was taken to the Tokyo Medical and Dental University hospital by an ambulance upon his arrival in Japan, Lu said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES