PPP, other opposition lawmakers criticize raid on pediatric emergency center

PPP's Im Yi-ja: 'Doctors who performed CPR treated as suspects'

Reform Party's Lee Joo-young, a former pediatric emergency specialist, decries presumption of guilt

Korean Medical Association President Kim Taek-woo holds an emergency press conference at the National Assembly on Oct. 15, condemning the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency's search and seizure of a pediatric emergency center during its investigation into a child patient's death. [Yonhap]
Korean Medical Association President Kim Taek-woo holds an emergency press conference at the National Assembly on Oct. 15, condemning the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency's search and seizure of a pediatric emergency center during its investigation into a child patient's death. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party and other conservative opposition parties on Wednesday called for an immediate internal investigation into the police's conduct during a raid on the pediatric emergency center at Ajou University Hospital, after a string of specialists at the center announced their resignations in the wake of the search.

PPP Policy Committee Chairwoman Im Yi-ja wrote on Facebook that day: "Is this what medical staff get for performing CPR for more than an hour to save a baby brought in with cardiac arrest — a search and seizure of the emergency room while they were treating patients, and being treated as criminal suspects?"

The Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency raided the pediatric emergency center at Ajou University Hospital on Sept. 30 as part of its investigation into the death of a child patient who had been treated at the hospital in July. Following the raid, seven of the nine pediatric emergency medicine specialists at the center reportedly submitted their resignations to the hospital. The medical community pushed back, accusing police of conducting an excessive forced investigation that disrupted patient care in an active emergency room. The controversy drew fire at the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee's comprehensive national audit on Tuesday.

Im said the police action had made the hands of doctors trying to save patients tremble and turned a treatment setting for critically ill children into a place of fear. "What doctor will now stay and work in a pediatric emergency room?" Im said. "The damage to pediatric emergency care will fall squarely on hundreds of thousands of children and their parents."

Rep. Kim Eun-hye, who chairs the PPP's Gyeonggi Province chapter, met with the Gyeonggi Province Medical Association at the party's provincial office in Suwon on Wednesday to discuss measures in response to the wave of resignations among pediatric emergency specialists. "This style of investigation, which disregards the unique nature of essential medical care, not only endangered patients who were at the threshold between life and death, but also drove away the doctors standing on the front lines of emergency medicine," Kim said.

From the Reform Party, Rep. Lee Joo-young — a former pediatric emergency specialist — held a press conference at the National Assembly and said the presumption of innocence applied to cases of child abuse and even verbal and physical assaults against medical staff, yet the doctors who had fought to save a patient's life were being treated as presumed guilty.

Lee said Ajou University Hospital had "bravely and passionately protected pediatric patients from Suwon, the surrounding region, and across the country." Lee added: "Unless we restore the common-sense premise that no medical professional intentionally kills a patient, there is no future for medicine in South Korea."


ikson@heraldcorp.com