Toddler, 10 others injured in Taichung mall blast still hospitalized

Taipei, Feb. 16 (CNA) Eleven people injured in a deadly gas explosion at a Taichung mall on Thursday remain hospitalized, including a 2-year-old girl from Macau who is in intensive care, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said Saturday.

According to the MOHW, the 2-year-old is being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Taichung's China Medical University Hospital.

Four others are in ICUs at Taichung Veterans General Hospital, the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital branches in Taoyuan and Kaohsiung, and Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei.

One patient at Taichung's Lin Shin Hospital, four at the city's Cheng Ching Hospital Chung Kang Branch, and one at Taipei's Mackay Memorial Hospital are all being observed in general wards, the MOHW said.

Two relatives of the 2-year-old Macau girl -- a 58-year-old woman and her 56-year-old husband -- died after being hit by falling debris from the explosion when they were walking past the department store on a family trip to Taiwan, local authorities said.

Another four of the 2-year-old girl's family were injured in the blast.

The child had to undergo an emergency craniotomy -- a surgical procedure in which a bone flap is temporarily removed from the skull to access the brain - due to severe brain injuries.

On Sunday, the hospital indicated that she remained in the ICU as her condition was unchanged from Saturday and she was still in a coma.

The girl's 24-year-old uncle and her great-grandmother, aged 85, are two of the four still being treated in the general ward at Cheng Ching Hospital Chung Kang Branch alongside another victim who is 68 and suffered from thoracic vertebrae fracture.

To date, four people were killed and 36 injured in the gas explosion.

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