My son died while undergoing contour surgery, but the hospital director urged me to agree? "The background of mandatory CCTV in the operating room is"

[YTN Radio lawyer Lee Won-hwa's case X file]
■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: Thursday, September 26, 2024
■ Host: Attorney Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Lawyer Kwon Myeon-cheol

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◇ Lawyer Lee Won-hwa (hereinafter referred to as Lee Won-hwa): Dae-hee, who just became a college student, had a dream that she really wanted to achieve for a long time. It was getting plastic surgery. After searching here and there, Dae-hee went to a famous plastic surgeon in Gangnam who appeared on TV and had an accident-free experience. Daehee said she had a complex about her chin since she was young. I was teased by my friends, so they decided to get plastic surgery when they go to college. Dae-hee, who was lying on the operating table expecting to see a different side of herself. Did Dae-hee's wish come true? On the day of surgery, Dae-hee's bleeding was 3,500CC, equivalent to 70% of blood in her body. But what was more absurd was the contents of the CCTV video that the family confirmed after the accident. What happened in this video? Incident X file starts right now. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, the case X file of lawyer Lee Won-hwa. Today, we are joined by lawyer Kwon Myeon-cheol of Law Firm, Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◆ Lawyer Kwon Myeon-cheol (hereinafter referred to as Kwon Myeon-cheol): Hello, I'm Kwon Myeon-cheol, a lawyer at LOEL Law Firm.

◇ When I was entering college, there were a lot of my friends who planned to get double eyelid surgery and raise their nose when they went to college. I think there's probably more these days. The victim of today's incident, Kwon Dae-hee. I think Dae-hee was one of the young people who had that dream, but she must have searched many famous plastic surgery clinics to get facial contour surgery.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Yes. Kwon Dae-hee has been bullied since high school due to her square jaw and protruding mouth. For this reason, as soon as he entered the university, he received counseling from various famous plastic surgery clinics, and among them, he was told by a hospital specializing in facial contour surgery run by a famous doctor who appeared on TV that the head of the hospital with 14 years of accident-free experience was responsible for the surgery from start to finish, so he was excited and went to the operating table. However, 11 hours after the operation began, a call to 119 suddenly came in.

◇ Wonhwa : 119? Who reported what?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: The hospital that was performing the surgery immediately reported to 119 that Kwon's bleeding was so severe that he would have to be transferred to a large hospital. At that time, the amount of bleeding was about 3500CC, which was 70% of Kwon's total blood volume. Later, Kwon was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit of Chung-Ang University Hospital.

◇ Did the surgery go wrong?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: The hospital was performing so-called factory-style surgery. On the day of the incident, Jang, the hospital director, entered the operating room at around 1 p.m. and began cutting off Kwon Dae-hee's jawbone, which was anesthetized about 20 minutes later. At that time, there was so much bleeding that blood poured down the head that the nurse next to him wiped the blood on the floor with a push six times in an hour.

◇ [Voiceover] This is the scene that was all on CCTV.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Yes, that's right. However, an hour after the start of the operation, Jang, a surgeon, left the operating room without suturing the surgical site, and suddenly doctor Shin came in and proceeded with the rest of the operation. Even though Kwon's bleeding continued, Shin left the operating room about an hour later, and only the remaining nursing assistant Jeon stopped Kwon for about 30 minutes.

◇ It's not normal for the surgeon to go out even though the surgery is not even finished. I wonder if the patient knew this because the surgery was divided into division of labor like some kind of peacock.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Kwon decided to undergo surgery at the hospital, believing in the hospital's words that the head of the hospital with 14 years of accident-free experience with skills and reputation is responsible for the operation from beginning to end, so he wouldn't have known that the hospital would perform factory-style surgery.

◇ Binaryization: That's right. To be honest, I don't think I would have been worried about that much. However, there was a problem, so when I reported it to 119, I didn't even inform my family immediately. There's a story like this. What happened?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Yes, that's right. Even when Kwon's condition got worse and called 119, the family was not aware of Kwon's condition at all. Only then did the hospital contact Kwon's brother to obtain consent from his guardian when he had to be admitted to the intensive care unit.

◇ So what happened to the victim?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Kwon, who was brain dead, finally died on October 26, 2016, 49 days after jaw surgery.

◇ Dualization: If you look at the interviews of families revealed through the media. What's really absurd is that the accident occurred and of course, you were so surprised that there wouldn't have been a situation. But what the hospital did to the family at this time was that it was so angry. But I think anyone would have been upset if the listeners heard this.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: The hospital director Jang told Kwon's mother, 'I talked to the lawyer and the results were two. The first is to be judged by law. If you file a criminal suit, your mother will lose unconditionally. "Criminal proceedings should be intentional, but I didn't do it intentionally," he said, adding that he was not criminally responsible, followed by "the second is an agreement." I have conditions for an agreement. If you ask me to agree on the responsibility of the university hospital, I feel unfair. I can't give you 100% of the settlement. He urged Lee to agree on the conditions he wanted, saying, "University hospitals are also at fault."

◇ Dualization: It's amazing that he's not criminally responsible, but it's absurd that he showed such an attitude from the beginning that he wouldn't even take civil responsibility. If you're a lawyer, what do you think if a doctor suddenly says this right after the accident when you're in the same situation?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: I think a serious apology should precede the death of a patient who operated on him, whether intentional or not. However, it would be quite difficult for me to hold back my anger if the doormat insisted that he was not criminally responsible and urged the agreement. Nevertheless, it is said that the plastic surgery clinic continued its business with false advertisements that it was accident-free until Kwon's mother reported the people involved herself.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: Of course, the bereaved families sued the hospital director, right?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Yes. Kwon's mother sued plastic surgery medical staff, and in particular, she read medical records and appraisal results hundreds of times to prove the medical staff's negligence, returned CCTV footage of the operating room thousands of times, and submitted analysis data directly to the investigative agency. Since then, the police have sent the suspects to the prosecution on charges of professional negligence and violation of the medical law, and on November 27, 2019, three years after suing the medical staff, Kwon's mother received a call like a bolt from the blue. It was the prosecution's notice of reasons for non-prosecution. The prosecution admitted only Jang's professional manslaughter and did not indict him on charges of violating the medical law for unlicensed medical practices.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: The police sent it, but what was the prosecution's logic?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: The prosecution pointed out that the nursing assistant's hemostasis was an extension of the doctor Shin's hemostasis, and that the hemostasis against Kwon was not a high-level medical practice that must be done only by a doctor. However, considering that there was no doctor in the operating room while nursing assistant Jeon stopped Kwon alone for about 30 minutes, and that there was a Supreme Court precedent that all doctors who ordered medical treatment were in violation of the medical law.

◇ Dualization: The law is often on the doctor's side when a medical accident occurs. It's said that it's not easy for victims to fight legally, but in this case, there are CCTV videos and it doesn't seem that difficult. But why did he do that?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: In a rather unconvincing situation, the bereaved families looked into the relationship between the people involved in the case. It turned out that the lawyer appointed by the hospital director Jang and the prosecutor in charge of the case were alumni of Seoul National University's medical school, and even the two were the same classmates of the Judicial Research and Training Institute who passed the bar exam in the same year. The bereaved families were angry and immediately objected to the prosecution's non-prosecution through a ruling system that asked again whether the court's decision was valid if the prosecutor was not prosecuted for a complaint or accusation.

◇ Binaryization: It's actually not easy in practice for financial applications to be accepted.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: That's right. Even in the Constitution, the right to prosecute is regarded as the prosecution's own authority, so it is very difficult for the court to overturn the non-prosecution imposed by the prosecution. In fact, the citation rate for the fiscal application in 2019, the very year before Lee applied for the fiscal application, was only 0.3%.

◇ DUALIZATION: Less than 1 in 100 cases.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: But Lee didn't give up and took to the streets every day, held a one-day protest for 416 days in front of the National Assembly Prosecutor's Office Court, and eventually the court decided that the medical staff had committed unlicensed medical practice and ordered a prosecution against the suspect.

◇ Dualization: How did the trial go?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: An anesthetic record in the first trial. All other parts except for the false writing were found guilty, but the second trial court was an anesthetic record. He pleaded guilty to all false writing and sentenced hospital director Jang to three years in prison with a fine of 10 million won, and Shin to two years in prison with a fine of 10 million won.

◇ Dualization: I think the bereaved families accepted the first trial decision. But the defendants objected and appealed. There's a story like this.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Yes. His mother, Lee, accepted the results, but Jang and Shin appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that pressing hemostasis for 30 minutes cannot be regarded as an unlicensed medical practice because compression hemostasis is not a medical practice, but only a medical assistance. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the defendants' appeal to the effect that compression hemostasis is an act that could cause harm to human life, body, health, and hygiene if not done by medical personnel, so it is not a medical practice that a nursing assistant can do alone without supervision from a doctor.

◇ Binaryization: That's right. Just because it's a hemostasis, it's not just an act that stops the blood, but now this was a case where about 70% of the total blood volume had already been poured out. Then, I wonder if I can claim that this act is not a medical practice. But over time, these people can go back to medical practice. There's a story like this. Is that true? Have you been deprived of your doctor's license?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Yes, that's right. The doctor's license is revoked only after receiving a sentence of imprisonment or higher for violating the medical law, but Jang and Shin were fined for violating the medical law, so the doctor's license was not deprived.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: Then, only imprisonment was given for professional negligence killing, and the medical law was sentenced by dividing only fines. Then, if the perpetrator starts medical treatment again later, is there a system in which patients can access their past history of such accidents, or is there an obligation to notify them?

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: In the case of the United States, we operate a doctor's history inquiry site, so you can check the medical accident history of the doctor in charge, but in Korea, there is no obligation to notify doctors and no device for patients to check their medical accident history.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: In fact, if lawyers are disciplined, all disciplinary details will be disclosed on the Lawyers Association website. I think that's a bit disappointing. I also think it's unfair, but anyway, it was mentioned earlier, but Dae-hee's mother could not prove it if there were no CCTVs in the operating room. In order for the second Kwon Dae-hee not to come out, CCTV in the operating room must be mandatory. You insisted on this part very strongly. It eventually led to legislation.

◆ Kwon Myeon-cheol: Yes. Since September last year, the mandatory installation of CCTVs in operating rooms, also known as the Kwon Dae-hee Act, has been in effect. Accordingly, the establishment of a medical institution that performs surgery while the patient is unconscious due to general anesthesia or sleep anesthesia should install CCTV inside the operating room, film the operation scene if requested by the patient or guardian, and keep the video for more than 30 days. However, it is pointed out that medical institutions are not obligated to notify whether CCTVs are recorded in the operating room, and that the video storage period is somewhat shorter than 30 days from the date of filming.

◇ Binaryization: Case X File That's all we've prepared for today. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.