A first-trial ruling ordered two hospitals to pay 400 million won to the family of a 4-year-old child who died after being sent around between emergency rooms. The court said the hospitals refused to accept the patient into their emergency rooms without a valid reason.
According to the legal community and the Korea Alliance of Patients Organization on the 16th, the Civil Division 1 of the Busan District Court, Western Branch (Presiding Judge Kim Dong-hee) ruled the day before in a damages suit filed by the bereaved family of the late Kim Dong-hee against two hospitals.
In Oct. 2019, Kim underwent a tonsillectomy at Hospital A in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang. Afterward, bleeding occurred at the surgical site, and he went to the emergency room at Hospital B in Busan. The on-call night doctor at Hospital B did not provide emergency treatment and handed Kim over to a 119 ambulance.
When Kim lost consciousness, 119 paramedics contacted the pediatric emergency room at Hospital A. The hospital refused treatment, saying, "There is an emergency patient undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, so it would be better to go to another hospital." Kim was then transferred to another hospital 20 kilometers away but did not regain consciousness. Kim received life-sustaining treatment and died in March the following year. Meanwhile, a police investigation found that at the time, there was no patient in the emergency room at Hospital A in a condition serious enough to justify refusing Kim's treatment.
The court said, "The joint unlawful acts of Hospital A, which refused treatment without a justifiable reason, and Hospital B, which handed the patient over to 119 without proper treatment, are recognized." The Korea Alliance of Patients Organization said it was "a symbolic ruling recognizing liability for damages for the 'emergency room runaround.'"
Earlier, doctors at Hospital A and Hospital B were fined in criminal trials. The Ulsan District Court in Oct. last year sentenced Hospital A and its pediatric emergency room doctor, who were charged with violating the Emergency Medical Service Act, to fines of 10 million won and 5 million won, respectively. The doctor at Hospital B, indicted on charges of violating the Medical Service Act, was fined 5 million won.