Severance stabbing suspect referred to prosecutors

Police referred a woman in her 50s to prosecutors on Friday after she allegedly attacked a psychiatrist at Severance Hospital in Seoul. The woman remains in custody on suspicion of attempted murder, obstruction of business and violating the Medical Service Act.

The Seodaemun Police Station referred the case to the Seoul Western District prosecutors’ office.

Police applied a provision of the Medical Service Act with strengthened penalties for assaults on medical workers.

The provision was introduced in 2019 after a patient fatally stabbed Lim Se-won, a psychiatry professor at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, during a consultation in December 2018.

The recent attack occurred at around 4:35 p.m. on Nov. 4 in a fifth-floor consultation room at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun-gu, western Seoul.

The woman allegedly followed another patient into the room and pulled out a weapon she had brought with her.

The psychiatrist, a professor surnamed Kang, sustained injuries to his face and hands, including a wound about 5 centimeters long. He was taken to the emergency room, and his injuries were reported to be non-life-threatening.

Asked why she had allegedly attacked the professor as she arrived for a detention hearing on Nov. 7, the woman said she had been denied medical treatment in 2018.

Under the Medical Service Act, assaulting a medical worker who is providing care and causing injury is punishable by up to seven years in prison or a fine of 10 million to 70 million won ($7,500 to $52,000).

An assault resulting in serious injury carries a prison term of three to 10 years.