Dementia Patient Falls to Basement Level 2 of Nursing Home... Court Recognizes Responsible Party's Negligence

Seoul Central District Court / Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The facility manager of a nursing home, who was prosecuted for negligently conducting safety inspections and causing an elderly man in his 80s to fall to the second basement floor of a building and sustain serious injuries, was sentenced to a fine.

According to the legal community on the 17th, Judge Jang Young-chae of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 11 sentenced Mr. A, the facility manager of a nursing home in Seoul, who was tried on charges of professional negligence causing injury, to a fine of 4 million won. The court pointed out, "Considering the nature and degree of the breach of duty of care, the crime is by no means minor," and added, "The injuries sustained by the victim are severe, and no settlement has been reached to date."

Mr. A was prosecuted for negligently conducting safety inspections at a nursing home in Seoul in July 2019, which resulted in serious injuries to patient B (85), who was suffering from dementia. It was investigated that Mr. A only checked the operation of the lift and the presence of hydraulic fluid at the time of the accident but did not verify whether the automatic locking device was functioning. As a result, Mr. B opened the lift door on the first floor, which did not have a lift, entered, and fell to the second basement floor, fracturing his lumbar and pelvic bones in the accident.