[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] A man who was drunk and sleeping on the street was taken to a police precinct, stayed there, and after leaving, fell into a coma.
According to the Gyeongnam Police Agency on the 6th, at 2:02 a.m. on January 29, a 112 report was received stating that a man and woman who appeared to be intoxicated were lying on the stairs inside Sangnam Traditional Market in Seongsan-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongnam.
The Sinwol Police Precinct of Changwon Jungbu Police Station, which received the report, dispatched two officers to the scene and requested cooperation from 119 emergency services.
The paramedics who arrived first confirmed that neither of the two had any injuries. The woman was put into a taxi and sent home, while the man was placed in an ambulance and handed over to the precinct at around 2:30 a.m. that day.
Later, at around 4:49 a.m., a man in his 30s who had been sleeping face down on a precinct desk stood up but fell backward, hitting his head on the glass wall. A police officer who discovered this called for paramedics.
The glass did not break, and upon inspection by the precinct police, the man was found to have a contusion on the right side of his head.
At around 4:55 a.m., paramedics arrived at the precinct, checked the man's wound, administered first aid, and confirmed there were no abnormalities in his pupillary response, blood pressure, pulse, or other vital signs before leaving.
At around 6:27 a.m., the police explained the situation to the man’s mother who visited the precinct and handed him over to her.
On January 31, the man’s mother returned to the precinct to inquire about the exact circumstances of the accident, during which the precinct learned that the man was unconscious due to a skull fracture.
The man’s family criticized the police for inadequate protection measures and delayed communication, questioning why they did not decide to transport him to a hospital.
The police stated, “Usually, intoxicated individuals are sent home from the scene, but when brought to the precinct, they are promptly handed over to their guardians. If the 119 paramedics judge the person to be severely intoxicated, they transport them to an emergency medical facility. However, we trusted the paramedics’ opinion at the time, who said he was normal during both the first and second checks.”
“The man was very intoxicated and difficult to communicate with, and he used a lot of abusive language at the precinct,” they added. “Even after falling, he kept trying to move, so we supported him and sat him in a chair.”
“The man vomited once before his family arrived and once in his mother’s car,” they said. “According to the family, they visited three hospitals that day but were told they could not provide treatment, and finally received treatment at a large hospital in Changwon.”
The police are conducting training for precinct and police box officers to prevent similar cases from recurring and are reviewing the adequacy of the facilities to make improvements.
The man’s family has filed a complaint against 14 police officers working at the Sinwol Precinct and the firefighters who responded to the precinct on charges of professional negligence causing injury.
The investigative authorities plan to investigate whether the man’s skull fracture occurred when he fell at the precinct or if it was caused elsewhere and discovered later.
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