Yang Jae-woong, a psychiatrist and broadcaster. [Newsis]
Yang Jae-woong, a psychiatrist and broadcaster. [Newsis]

The mother of a woman in her 30s who died at a psychiatric hospital formerly run by psychiatrist and broadcaster Yang Jae-woong, 44, has accused police of dragging their feet on the investigation — even as 21 minutes of CCTV footage from the time of her daughter's death went missing.

Appearing Tuesday as a witness at the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee audit of the Gyeonggi Province southern and northern police agencies, the bereaved mother, identified only as A, testified that her daughter had checked into the hospital to treat a dependence on diet pills and died in an isolation room just 17 days later. "For several days she begged to be sent to the emergency room, saying her stomach hurt, but she didn't receive proper care," A said.

A particularly criticized police for delays and their failure to secure evidence. She said that after her daughter's death she requested CCTV footage from the hospital and received it within 12 hours — but the 21 minutes covering the early morning hours when her daughter was dying were missing. "Even so, police didn't conduct a search and seizure of the hospital until six months after the death, and then halted the investigation on the grounds that a medical association assessment was taking too long," she said.

A said that while police had stalled, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea had stepped in and uncovered falsified nursing records and illegal physical restraints carried out without a doctor's orders. "I want to ask what police were doing all this time, even after conducting a search and seizure," she said.

The family urged authorities to require doctors to directly order and document isolation and physical restraints while prohibiting record tampering, to mandate the preservation of isolation-room CCTV footage and its immediate provision to bereaved families, and to establish an external oversight system for closed psychiatric wards. They also called for a thorough reinvestigation and punishment of those responsible.

Lawmakers also took aim at police over allegations of a shoddy investigation.

People Power Party lawmaker Kim Ye-ji said the Bucheon Wonmi Police Station had failed to promptly secure electronic medical records and access logs immediately after the incident, which would have allowed investigators to check for any alterations. She added that the officer who led the investigation at the time had since been promoted to head of the investigative review division at the Gyeonggi Province Southern Police Agency, and said that appointment warranted thorough scrutiny.

Fellow People Power Party lawmaker Kang Myeong-gu also criticized police, saying they had conducted no proper investigation for six months and only launched a reinvestigation after the human rights commission stepped in. "If the officer responsible for the initial investigation is now in a position overseeing the current probe, that amounts to burying the case and is a textbook example of protecting one's own," he said.

Acting Gyeonggi Province Southern Police Agency Commissioner Kim Hong-geun partially acknowledged shortcomings in the initial response, conceding that electronic records had not been secured on the day of the incident. On calls to take action against the officer who led the investigation, he said, "We will clarify exactly what went wrong and then determine our position."

The case stems from the death of a woman in her 30s at a hospital Yang operated in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, in May 2024. She died of intestinal obstruction.

Five people, including the attending physician and nurses, are under investigation on charges of occupational negligence resulting in death, accused of continuing to administer psychotropic drugs that can cause intestinal obstruction without adequately monitoring the patient's condition.

The hospital was ordered to suspend operations for three months and has since shut down permanently.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com