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| Lee Na-geum, mother of Kwon Dae-hee, the deceased victim of a botched plastic surgery at a hospital, calls for the mandatory installation of CCTVs in operation rooms in a one-person protest in front of the National Assembly, Yeouido, Seoul, April 8. / Korea Times file |
By Lee Suh-yoon
The Seoul Central District Court ordered a well-known plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam, southern Seoul, Wednesday, to pay 430 million won ($360,000) in compensation to the family of a young man who died on an operating table there.
The man, Kwon Dae-hee, fell into a coma from excessive blood loss while undergoing a facial contouring operation in September 2016. He was moved to a university hospital but died there a month later.
The court ruled the medical staff failed to take proper measures, such as starting a blood transfusion, despite being aware of the amount of blood the patient had lost. CCTV footage from the clinic's operating theaters showed the surgeon in charge operated on several patients at once, moving between rooms. The nurse who was left to treat the blood hemorrhage on her own was filmed fixing her makeup and playing with her smartphone.
The hospital also failed to properly inform Kwon of the risks associated with the procedure, the court added.
Throughout the long court battle, Kwon's family campaigned, along with other victims and civic activists, for the mandatory installation of CCTV cameras in operating rooms. Doctors' groups, however, have adamantly opposed the move, saying it could symbolically erode the "trust between patients and medical personnel."
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