Rib Pain After Nose Surgery... "Gauze Found Inside Patient's Body" Revealed

A plastic surgeon accused of suturing a patient with gauze left inside the body during surgery was found guilty after more than six years of trial and was sentenced to a fine. The photo is unrelated to any specific expressions in this article.

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A plastic surgeon accused of stitching up a patient’s body with gauze left inside during surgery was found guilty after more than six years of trial and was sentenced to a fine.

According to the legal community on the 6th, the 9th Criminal Appeal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Yang Kyungseung) overturned the first trial’s acquittal and sentenced plastic surgeon A (56), who was charged with professional negligence causing injury, to a fine of 10 million won.

A, who operated a plastic surgery clinic in Seoul, is accused of causing injury by stitching up gauze inside the left rib cartilage while harvesting cartilage from the left rib during a rhinoplasty surgery on Thai woman B (29 at the time) in August 2015.

After the surgery, B returned to Thailand, but when swelling and pain persisted in the left rib area, she visited a hospital in Thailand two weeks after the surgery and underwent an incision and drainage procedure under local anesthesia to remove pus. Local anesthesia is a method that blocks sensation in a specific part of the body while the patient remains conscious, preventing pain.

When her condition did not improve, B visited another hospital in Thailand and underwent surgery again. During this process, the gauze in the rib area was discovered, and only after it was removed did B’s condition gradually improve.

A, who was brought to trial, claimed innocence, stating, “Although cartilage was harvested from the left rib during B’s surgery, gauze was not used.” He also suggested the possibility that gauze might have been newly inserted during the surgery B received after returning to Thailand.

A submitted a sample video of the procedure of harvesting cartilage from the rib area without using gauze as evidence.

The first trial court accepted this and acquitted him. It was confirmed from the video submitted by A that gauze was not used at all, and it was not verified whether the gauze found in B’s body matched the specifications of the gauze usually used at A’s clinic.

However, the appellate court judged that gauze was used during the surgery performed by A and overturned the first trial’s verdict. The only possibilities for gauze remaining in B’s rib area were the surgeries performed by A and the hospital in Thailand, but considering that the Thai hospital only made a small skin incision under local anesthesia, the likelihood of gauze being used there was deemed low.

The court explained, “Although the surgery video of A harvesting cartilage from the rib shows that gauze was not used, this video was filmed while operating on another patient after operating on the victim.”

It added, “Due to A’s negligence, gauze was left inside the left rib area during the surgery, causing injury. Despite the seriousness of A’s medical negligence and B’s injury, A denied the criminal act and has not been forgiven by B to this day.”

A appealed the appellate court’s ruling.

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