Korean hospital ordered to pay W423m for US national's death

(123rf)

A Seoul court has ordered a local hospital to pay 423 million won ($319,993) to the family of a US national who died from a pulmonary embolism shortly after a hip replacement surgery in 2019, legal sources said Monday.

The Seoul Central District Court recently delivered the ruling nearly five years after the bereaved family filed a damages suit against the hospital for negligence that resulted in death.

The incident happened in August 2019 when the man, who was a 59-year-old American civilian employee working for the US Army, fractured his left hip after falling off his bicycle while riding on a wet road. He had surgery to insert a pin that would stabilize his joint and was discharged six days later.

However, he died four days after his discharge. The National Forensic Service found through an autopsy that his cause of death was a pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot that blocks and stops the blood from flowing to an artery in the lung.

The court explained that it determined that the hospital was at fault, considering he was at a higher risk for developing complications, and noted that the medical institution did not take the necessary precautions to prevent the condition.

"Medical staff were found to have been negligent and in fulfilling their duty to provide appropriate guidance, which could have contributed to the patient's death," the court said.

By Park Jun-hee(junheee@heraldcorp.com)