Doctor found guilty in death after neck surgery

A 56-year-old neurosurgeon was held accountable for the death of a patient in 2021, who died due to postoperative complications that went unnoticed because the defendant ignored follow-up protocols.

The Incheon District Court said Sunday it found the defendant guilty of death by occupational negligence, for failing to remove the hematoma found in the patient after a neck surgery. The defendant performed the surgery on June 21, 2021, but clocked out at 6:13 p.m. without conducting an X-ray on the patient after the operation to check for complications.

Though a nurse conducted the X-ray, the defendant failed to check the imaging. This ultimately led to the patient's death at 4:10 a.m. the next day due to issues including airway obstruction.

The defendant claimed to have ordered nurses to conduct the crucial X-ray test, but the nurses said they never received such orders from the doctor.

"The defendant made rounds and went home without checking the X-ray results, and did not check the images afterwards. ... It is difficult to understand why the defendant did not even ask to be sent the results via phone," the court said in its ruling.

The court said it took the defendant's lack of prior criminal records into account, as well as the fact that the defendant had settled with the victim's family.