Nursing Assistant Performs 622 Suturing Surgeries... Unqualified Part-Timer Also Admitted

Ulsan A Hospital Director and Assistant Nurse Sentenced to Prison

A nursing assistant was found to have performed over 600 cesarean section and laparoscopic suture surgeries as if she were a doctor, leading to the hospital director receiving a prison sentence and a fine. The nursing assistant also received a prison sentence, while the obstetricians and gynecologists were given suspended sentences.

A nursing assistant is performing surgery at a hospital in Ulsan Metropolitan City.

The Ulsan District Court Criminal Division 11 (Chief Judge Park Hyun-bae) announced on the 3rd that it sentenced A, the representative director of a hospital in Ulsan who was tried for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, to three years in prison and a fine of 5 million won, and sentenced B to two years and six months in prison and a fine of 3 million won.

Another representative director, C, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison with a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of 3 million won. Three obstetricians and gynecologists at the hospital were each sentenced to one year and six months in prison with a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 2 million won. The nursing assistant D, who performed the surrogate surgeries, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison and fined 3 million won.

A and the other directors and doctors were indicted on charges of allowing nursing assistant D to perform a total of 615 instances of unlicensed medical practice from December 2014 to May 2018.

During surgeries such as cesarean sections, they sutured only the uterus, abdominal wall, and fascia themselves before leaving the operating room. The remaining subcutaneous fat and skin layer sutures were completed by D, who stayed behind.

They then claimed medical insurance benefits from the National Health Insurance Service as if the doctors had completed the surgeries themselves, receiving approximately 880 million won over 584 claims.

Separately, A also employed a person without even a nursing assistant qualification as a part-time worker, allowing them to enter the operating room to hand over surgical instruments or thread suturing needles as instructed.

The court stated the reason for the sentence, saying, "Approximately 622 instances of suturing surgeries were performed by nursing assistants or nurses at this hospital over three and a half years," and "It appears that unlicensed medical practices were carried out in an organized and systematic manner."