Son Walks into University Hospital, Becomes Vegetative State in 1 Hour... "Hospital Ordered to Pay 570 Million Won Compensation"

Court: "Medical Staff Actions Recognized as Cause of Brain Damage"

A man in his 40s who visited a university hospital emergency room became comatose within an hour, and the court has ruled that the hospital must pay the victim 570 million won in damages.

On the 19th, the 14th Civil Division of the Incheon District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Ji-hoo) announced that it partially ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a damages lawsuit filed by the victim, Mr. A (43), through his guardian against the school foundation operating a university hospital.

Mr. A, who had a history of kidney problems, visited the emergency room of a university hospital in Incheon with his father in April 2019. He informed the medical staff, "I have had diarrhea more than 10 times a day for the past week, and I have been experiencing shortness of breath for the past two days," adding, "I will soon start hemodialysis for kidney treatment." At that time, Mr. A’s body temperature measured in the emergency room was 40 degrees Celsius. His respiratory rate was 38 breaths per minute, which is higher than the normal range (12?20 breaths per minute).

As Mr. A’s respiratory rate was abnormal and he gradually lost consciousness, the medical staff performed intubation after anesthesia (a procedure where an artificial tube is inserted through the nose or mouth to open the airway). They immediately attached a ventilator to Mr. A, but within five minutes, he went into cardiac arrest.

Fortunately, chest compressions and cardiopulmonary resuscitation revived Mr. A’s heartbeat, but he ultimately fell into a semi-comatose state due to hypoxic brain injury. This occurred less than an hour after he had walked into the emergency room.

[Image source=Pixabay]

In response, Mr. A’s guardian, his father, hired a lawyer in May 2020 and filed a damages lawsuit against the university hospital, demanding a total of 1.3 billion won in compensation. During the lawsuit, Mr. A’s side claimed, "Despite the patient being conscious, the medical staff performed unnecessary intubation," and "They failed to verify whether the intubation was properly done and did not fulfill their duty to monitor the patient’s progress."

The court accepted Mr. A’s claim that the medical staff did not properly monitor his condition during the intubation process. It ordered the school foundation to pay Mr. A 570 million won as compensation, including consolation money.

The court stated, "Considering Mr. A’s impaired kidney function, the medical staff should have carefully recorded and observed changes in his respiratory rate, pulse, oxygen saturation, and other vital signs more attentively than usual patients. However, after deciding to perform intubation, the medical staff neither carefully observed nor recorded Mr. A’s condition during the 15 minutes before cardiac arrest was confirmed. There is a significant causal relationship between this negligence and Mr. A’s brain injury."

However, the court judged that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that intubation was unnecessary given Mr. A’s increased respiratory rate and gradually decreasing consciousness at the time. It also added, "We considered the hospital staff’s efforts to treat Mr. A’s brain injury after his cardiac arrest."

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