Prosecution Appeals Supreme Court After Second Trial Acquits Ewha Mokdong Hospital Medical Staff in 'Newborn Death' Case

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The medical staff at Ewha Mokdong Hospital, where four newborns died in 2017, appealed the not guilty verdicts in the first and second trials, and the prosecution has filed an appeal.

According to the legal community on the 22nd, the prosecution submitted an appeal to the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 8 (Presiding Judges Bae Hyungwon, Kang Sangwook, Bae Sangwon) against the second trial's not guilty verdict for Professor Jo Sujin of the Pediatrics Department at Ewha Mokdong Hospital and six others, including the head nurse.

Recently, the appellate court stated, "This is a case where four victims died almost simultaneously in the same neonatal intensive care unit, making it difficult to find similar precedents," and added, "While this could be a reason to hold the related parties strictly accountable, careful judgment is required first," and thus acquitted them. The court also pointed out, "The prosecution's charges are based on inference and combined only unfavorable possibilities while excluding possibilities favorable to the defendants."

Furthermore, the court said, "As the prosecutor claims, there is a possibility that the Smoflipid (lipid nutrition) administered to the victims was contaminated with Citrobacter freundii, which seems more likely than other possibilities," but added, "Nevertheless, since there are undeniably other possibilities that cannot be ignored, the defendants cannot be convicted."

The case became controversial when four newborns being treated in incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ewha Mokdong Hospital sequentially died of infection-induced sepsis on the afternoon of December 15, 2017. The prosecution judged that the syringes were contaminated due to medical staff negligence, considering that Citrobacter freundii was commonly found in the bodies of the deceased newborns and the syringes, and indicted the medical staff.

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