The family of the patient who died in quarantine at Marine Hospital takes civil and criminal action... “300 million damages”

The family of Jae-gu Park (58), who died while hospitalized at Marine Hospital in Singil-dong, Seoul last April, has taken civil and criminal action. (▶Refer to the August 26th Korea Economic Daily report ‘[Exclusive] There was another ‘mental illness patient neglect incident’… bereaved family plans to file complaint with police’)

According to the legal community on the 4th, Daeryun Law Firm, which is representing Mr. Park's bereaved family, filed a lawsuit against the Korea Institute of Occupational Health and Environment in the Seoul Central District Court on the 27th of last month, demanding payment of approximately 320 million won, which is the amount of damages due to Mr. Park's death plus 5% annual interest for delay. Marine Hospital is an affiliated institution of the Korea Occupational Health and Environment Research Institute.

The bereaved family claims that the bereaved family suffered property damage of approximately 250 million won based on the fact that Park had been generating income equivalent to that of a city daily worker until his death. In addition, 50 million won in alimony for mental suffering and approximately 5.7 million won in funeral expenses were also claimed. A separate request was made for delay damages calculated at a rate of 5% per annum from April 18, when the fatal accident occurred, to the date of service of the complaint, and at a rate of 12% per annum from the next day until the date of full repayment.

In addition, on the 2nd, the bereaved family filed a complaint with the Yeongdeungpo Police Station in Seoul against four medical staff at Marine Hospital on charges of professional negligence causing death and violation of medical law.Attorney Min-young Han of Daeryun Medical Dispute Response Group, a law firm representing the case, explained, “As the cause of death was not clearly determined even through the autopsy conducted by the National Institute of Forensic Science, we believe that a police investigation is necessary to determine whether Mr. Park’s death was caused by the hospital’s negligence.”

Mr. Park attempted self-harm on April 18 and reported it to the police, and was admitted to Marine Hospital at the request of the police. Mr. Park was found dead at 6 a.m. the next day, about 8 hours after being hospitalized at 10 p.m. that day. At the time of his death, Mr. Park was found face down on the bed with his thighs caught between the head of the bed and the wall of the isolation room.

The bereaved family claims that the direct cause of death was that Mr. Park did not receive appropriate medical treatment despite calling the medical staff several times, and that he was left unable to properly control his body for about four hours. According to the mental health project's isolation and obsession guidelines, when patients are isolated in the mental health department, observation and evaluation must be conducted at least every hour, but it was confirmed through CCTV footage that this was not observed at all.

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