Government Apologizes for Death of COVID-19 Patient in 60s During Transfer for Home Treatment... Emergency Transport System to Be Improved

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] After a man in his 60s receiving home treatment following a COVID-19 diagnosis in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, died during hospital transfer, the government announced plans to improve the emergency transfer system for home treatment patients.

According to Seodaemun-gu Office on the 22nd, Mr. A (68), a COVID-19 patient undergoing home treatment in Seodaemun-gu, suffered cardiac arrest while being transferred to the hospital on the morning of the 21st and ultimately passed away.

Mr. A, who was unvaccinated against COVID-19, was diagnosed positive on the 20th but was asymptomatic and reportedly had no significant underlying conditions.

In particular, although Mr. A’s condition rapidly worsened, the COVID-19 dedicated ambulance did not arrive immediately, and delays in selecting a hospital raised concerns about potential gaps in the emergency transfer system for home treatment patients.

On the day, Seo Soon-tak, Director of Disaster Response at the Seoul Fire & Disaster Headquarters, said, "We regret the unfortunate death related to the transfer of this home treatment patient. The COVID-19 dedicated ambulance operates with 20 teams, and at that time, both a general ambulance and a dedicated ambulance were dispatched simultaneously. However, the general ambulance arrived first, and during the process of monitoring the patient’s prognosis signs, cardiac arrest occurred."

Director Seo explained, "Afterwards, the dedicated ambulance arrived and performed emergency treatment together, but there was about a 25-minute delay in selecting the hospital. The patient died after arriving at the hospital."

Regarding criticism that the Central Accident Response Headquarters delayed hospital selection, the official said, "We will check the bed availability details. Taking this death incident as an opportunity, we will verify whether the classification of home treatment subjects is accurate, whether monitoring is properly conducted, and also check for security issues such as whether there are problems like isolation breaches when patients are quarantined."

He added, "The most important thing is a prompt transfer system. Since a patient’s condition can suddenly worsen, we will re-examine the system to ensure immediate transfer to a dedicated hospital is possible in such cases."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.