Drunk driver hits and kills cleaning lady. Daughter with Rett Syndrome gets up many times in the middle of the night to look for her mother

2026/09/26 10:20

Mrs. Zheng (left) took her daughter with Rett syndrome to participate in activities whenever she had the opportunity and took great care of her. (Provided by Zeng Yali)

[Reporter Hong Chenhong/Reporting from Kaohsiung] On the 19th, a cleaning woman surnamed Zheng was hit and killed by a drunk driver in Shulin District, New Taipei City. She left behind a daughter surnamed Chen who suffered from the rare disease Rett syndrome. Chen’s daughter seemed to feel that her mother was gone that day. She got up several times in the middle of the night. Her brother asked the Taiwan Rett Syndrome Patient Care Association for help, "I was afraid that my father wouldn't be able to bear it."

51-year-old Mrs. Zheng is on the seventh day of the 26th today. She has been married to Taiwan for more than 20 years from China and has a son and a daughter with her husband surnamed Chen. She finally went from being a low-income family who collected resources for recycling to being admitted to the cleaning team through perseverance. She was fighting cancer and working at the same time, hoping to make more money so that her daughter could receive better care. However, she was killed by a drunk driver on the street.

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Tseng Ya-li, secretary-general of the Taiwan Rett Syndrome Patient Care Association, said that the 24-year-old Chen woman has Rett syndrome and has no oral expression ability. She regularly goes to the Rett Syndrome Joint Clinic and takes epilepsy drugs. Her epilepsy is well controlled, but her mood is relatively unstable. She may slap herself on the head or attack her family members. Seeing that Mrs. Zheng sometimes had scars on her face, Zeng Yali asked why she didn't get out of the way. She said quietly, "Let my daughter vent."

Father Chen and Mrs. Zheng love their daughter very much. They have taken care of their daughter since she was a child. It was not until Mrs. Zheng started working on the cleaning team and her qualification as a low-income household was revoked that they sent their daughter to day care and long-term care services. Zeng Yali said that patients with Rett syndrome have sleep disorders and will wake up in the middle of the night. It is the Chen family's parents who take turns getting up to put their daughter to sleep, or staying up all night with her.

Zeng Yali said that the 58-year-old Chen's father had suffered from tuberculosis and was always stuck in finding a job. He was currently running a toy store that could barely survive. After Zheng's death, the family could only rely on their son's meager salary to support rent, day care and other expenses for Chen. Zeng said that the inability of two grown men to help Chen take a bath was also a big problem. The son surnamed Chen said that his father insisted on keeping his sister with him, and now he has to get up every night to stay with her because he is afraid that his body will not be able to hold on.

Zeng Yali said that the average life expectancy of Rett syndrome patients is 65 years old, and the oldest patient of the association is 51 years old. She will seek resources to help the Chen family and hopes that the society will lend a helping hand.