Doctors on trial for attempting to conceal the death of a newborn dropped by the medical team denied all charges in the first hearing Thursday.
Prosecutors said the defendants – a gynecologist surnamed Moon, 52, and pediatrician surnamed Lee, 65, – face charges of deleting records after the infant died from the drop and issuing a faulty medical certificate.
Doctors accused of concealing the cause of newborn`s death leave Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Thursday. (Yonhap)
The defendants’ attorney denied both charges, claiming they had neither directed the record’s removal nor had any involvement in the process.
According to prosecutors, medical staff at the hospital dropped a preterm newborn in the process of carrying it to an intensive care unit after a Caesarian section in August 2018.
While the ultrasound examination on the infant showed skull fractures and cerebral hemorrhage, staff deleted the record. They also neglected to record the drop’s occurrence and listed illness as the cause of death on the death certificate. As an autopsy request is only filed when there is suspicion of an unnatural death, no post-mortem examination was conducted.
By Kim Arin (
arin@heraldcorp.com)
