Patient Ultimately Suffers Brain Damage and Unconsciousness... Doctor Who Carelessly Performed Surgery Alone Sentenced to 1 Year in Prison

A doctor accused of causing a patient to fall into a coma due to negligent surgery was sentenced to one year in prison. Photo is unrelated to any specific expressions in this article.

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] A doctor accused of causing a patient to fall into a coma due to negligent surgery was sentenced to one year in prison.

On the 13th, according to the legal community, Judge Lee Donghee of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 2 sentenced orthopedic specialist Dr. A (76), who was indicted without detention on charges of professional negligence causing injury and violation of the Medical Service Act, to one year in prison.

In 2019, while working at a hospital in Seoul, Dr. A performed anesthesia and surgery alone on patient B (47) without an anesthesiology specialist, and was brought to trial for failing to properly observe the patient's abnormal condition and taking inappropriate measures.

At the time, Dr. A started the surgery after assigning only one nursing assistant to monitor B's condition. About an hour into the surgery, B began to experience finger rigidity and convulsions throughout the body, and soon stopped breathing.

Only then did Dr. A call the head of internal medicine to restore breathing and transfer B to the emergency room of a university hospital, but B ultimately suffered permanent injury in the form of a coma caused by brain damage.

Dr. A is also accused of falsifying anesthesia records to make it appear as if blood pressure and oxygen saturation were periodically checked during the surgery.

It was also found that in 2020, Dr. A had previously been sentenced to one year and six months in prison with a two-year probation for the same charges of professional negligence causing injury and violation of the Medical Service Act.

Dr. A is known to claim that patient B showed anaphylaxis (hypersensitive immune reaction) and that he fulfilled his duty of care.

However, the court ruled, "Considering B's condition before and after anesthesia, the possibility of anaphylaxis is very low," and "even though the nursing assistant clearly reported abnormal signs to Dr. A, such as the machine repeatedly disconnecting from B's finger, Dr. A continued the surgery without stopping or checking the patient's condition."

Dr. A immediately appealed the prison sentence.

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