"Curious Story Y" reported that police currently investigating broadcaster Park Narae on allegations of illegal medical practices have imposed an exit ban on a person known as the so-called "injection aunt."
On the 31st of last month, police said the Seoul Gangnam Police Station recently banned the departure from the country of a nonmedical person surnamed Lee who is accused of violating the Medical Service Act, Pharmaceutical Affairs Act and of stimulants under the Narcotics Control Act. Lee is accused of administering intravenous drips to Park Narae in an officetel and in a vehicle without having obtained a domestic medical license, and of illegally providing antidepressants and other drugs without a prescription.
Earlier, prosecutors received a complaint submitted on the 6th by former Korean Medical Association Organization president Lim Hyun-taek and forwarded the case to the police, and the police are expanding their investigation into the related allegations.
Meanwhile, Park Narae's former managers on the 3rd filed with the Seoul Western District Court a request to provisionally seize real estate worth about 100 million won, alleging abuse of power by Park Narae, special injury, proxy prescription, illegal medical procedures and nonpayment of production fees, and also warned of a lawsuit seeking damages. Park Narae denied the former managers' claims and filed a countersuit accusing them of attempted extortion.
On the 2nd, SBS's Curious Story Y focused on the substance of the controversy over the so-called "injection aunt." The program reported that Lee is suspected of visiting Park Narae's home or performing injection procedures at her own home, and there were also claims that she continuously provided the medications Park Narae took daily. Park Narae's side explained at the time that those were nutritional supplements, but the program said some of the drugs could be appetite suppressants (commonly called "butterfly pills"), which are classified as narcotics, and that multiple injectable drugs appeared to have been used indiscriminately.
There was also an allegation that Lee introduced herself as the head of a Korean plastic surgery center and a visiting professor at a hospital in China. When producers directly checked with the hospital, the hospital said, "There is no doctor by that name," and Lee was not found on the official website's list of doctors. A check of domestic medical licenses and registration with the Korean Medical Association Organization also found nothing, revealing no record of her practicing as a doctor in Korea.
The program also covered the fact that Lee had gained trust by using a business card bearing the title "representative" at a plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam, Seoul. In response to the producers' reporting, the head of that clinic said, "This is unfair. Strange rumors are spreading," and added, "That person is not a doctor, and when we first met, she introduced herself as an overseas patient recruitment agent," which caused an uproar.
Ultimately, the controversy is growing as evidence showed Lee was not a doctor in China or in Korea and that she in fact worked as an overseas patient recruitment agent. Depending on the police investigation results, legal judgments will be made on whether illegal medical practices and drug distribution occurred.
[Photo] "Curious Story Y"
[OSEN]