Mother Collects Evidence After Son's Death... Calls Mandatory Operating Room CCTV "Like a Dream"

Mother of the late Kwon Daehee, who died from medical malpractice
"Medical community and patient groups consulted, but a constitutional complaint?"

Lee Na-geum, representative of the Medical Justice Practice Solidarity, expressed her feelings of "it feels like a dream" on the 25th, when the mandatory installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in operating rooms takes effect. Lee is the mother of the late Kwon Dae-hee, who died in a medical accident in 2016, and she was the person who ignited public opinion for the enactment of the law mandating CCTV in operating rooms.

On the same day, Lee appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and said, "I distributed the footage even though it damaged my child's posthumous honor, and now that the law is finally being implemented, it feels like a dream. Since there is no precedent worldwide for installing CCTV in operating rooms and the medical community strongly resisted, I did not start with hope or the thought that it would succeed, but as I continued, I felt that it could be done. So I did not give up and persevered until the end."

Lee's son, Mr. Kwon, died from excessive bleeding during plastic surgery at a cosmetic surgery clinic. Lee, the mother, collected CCTV footage from the hospital on the day of the surgery and meticulously checked the whereabouts of the surgical staff down to the second, submitting it as evidence. After six years of legal battles, the Supreme Court handed down a prison sentence to the medical staff in January.

Lee acknowledged that there are blind spots in the amended Medical Service Act, but she evaluated that the law's implementation alone holds significant meaning and that improvements can be made gradually. She said, "The restrictions on filming are very subjective and broad, and the conditions for viewing are strict, but what is commonly called ghost surrogate surgery happens a lot in plastic surgery clinics, so having CCTV is better than not having it in those cases."

She added, "The mandatory installation of CCTV in daycare centers is also insufficient at first, but as problems arise, it becomes easier to improve. Although it is difficult to create a law, it is easy to amend it, so having it is better than not having it. Also, it is meaningful that this exists only in South Korea and nowhere else in the world."

Regarding the medical community's constitutional challenge against the mandatory installation of CCTV in operating rooms, she criticized the move. The Korean Medical Association and the Korean Hospital Association filed a constitutional complaint on the 5th, arguing that the installation of CCTV in operating rooms infringes on healthcare workers' personal dignity, right to privacy, and freedom to perform their profession, thus potentially unconstitutional.

Lee said, "The plan for installing CCTV in operating rooms was agreed upon through a consultative body including representatives from patient groups, consumer groups, and medical organizations. It is utterly absurd and very regrettable that they reversed this just before implementation and filed a constitutional complaint."

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