It was belatedly found that a high school student injured in Busan died after failing to find an emergency room for an hour. Hospitals was found to have refused the patient on the grounds that there were no specialists. In the medical community, some said that the hospital should have provided emergency measures.
According to the Busan Fire and Disaster Headquarters on the 19th, A (18), a student at a high school in Busan, was found collapsed at about 6:17 a.m. on the 20th of last month. Police was found that A fell outside a school building. A teacher on the way to work reported it, and fire authorities arrived at the scene at about 6:33 a.m.
A was conscious at the time and showed symptoms of convulsions and shortness of breath. Paramedics put A in an ambulance and looked for a hospital to transfer to. Considering A's symptoms, they focused on hospitals with neurology departments, but were refused admission. The paramedics eventually asked the ambulance situation management center under the Busan Fire and Disaster Headquarters to find a hospital that could accept a transfer.
The center contacted eight hospitals not only in Busan but also in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, but all refused. Most hospitals declined on the grounds that there were no pediatric neurology specialists. Nearly an hour passed, and A went into cardiac arrest. The paramedics headed to the nearest Daedong Hospital.
If a patient is in cardiac arrest, nearby hospitals must accept the patient. When a doctor at the hospital took off A's clothes to examine the body closely, trauma was found near the tailbone. A died about an hour after the first report.
Voices of reflection are emerging in the medical community. Lee Dong-uk, president of the Gyeonggi-do Medical Association, said on social media (SNS) that it was an act of a doctor abandoning the basic ethics of life, adding that from a parent's standpoint, this is a disaster for which there are no excuses even if one had a hundred mouths.
Lee said, what does it matter whether it is neurosurgery, emergency medicine, or a general practitioner, adding, it is like a restaurant refusing to serve a meal and starving a person to death because it lacks one final seasoning. He continued, the ABC principle is the most basic thing a doctor learns, adding, it makes no sense that Airway (securing the airway), Breathing (assisting breathing), and Circulation (maintaining circulation; assessing and basically maintaining pulse and blood pressure) could not be provided in a major city, leading to death.
There are also opinions that the hospitals had no choice from their perspective. Yang Seong-gwan, Director of the family medicine department at Uijeongbu Baik Hospital in Gyeonggi Province, also said on SNS that seizure treatment does not end when the convulsions stop but requires finding and treating the cause of the seizure, adding that the necessary specialist varies depending on the cause.
Director Yang said that hospitals did not refuse the student because there were no doctors, but because they were not confident they could meet the court's standards, adding that there is an actual precedent. He said that when an emergency pediatric surgery patient occurred, a general surgeon performed the surgery in place of the subspecialty pediatric surgeon who was on vacation. He continued, when the outcome was poor, the guardian filed a lawsuit, and the court held the hospital responsible for assigning the on-call general surgeon, who was not a subspecialty pediatric surgeon among general surgeons, and ordered 1 billion won in compensation.
Some also said that the paramedics should have properly informed the hospital of the patient's condition at the time. An official at the Busan Fire and Disaster Headquarters said that if a person fell, there are usually fractures or bleeding, but no external injuries were found at the scene, adding that after the patient went into cardiac arrest, trauma was found at the hospital.