"Mother Who Asked for Help from Fake Lee Jae-yong Account for Daughter with Rare Disease Experiences a 'Miracle'"

Professor Jo Seongyun of Samsung Seoul Hospital contacts Mr. A, whose daughter suffers from Mucolipidosis

A woman's story about receiving a call from Samsung Seoul Hospital after asking for help to "assist her daughter suffering from a rare disease" through an account impersonating Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has attracted attention.

On the 9th, Ms. A, who has a daughter with mucolipidosis, wrote on her SNS, "Although this is probably not the Instagram account directly managed by Chairman Lee, I habitually sent DMs hoping that Samsung Seoul Hospital would develop a treatment for my child, and a miracle happened."

A fake account impersonating Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, who has 380,000 followers [Photo by Instagram]

Ms. A said, "I hesitated whether to answer a call from the area code 02, but I did, and it was Professor Cho Sung-yoon from Samsung Seoul Hospital," and expressed her emotion, saying, "The hospital decided to develop a treatment for mucopolysaccharidosis type 2 (mucolipidosis). There is no research on treatments worldwide, not just in Korea, so I never imagined this, but they called me."

Ms. A added that Professor Cho told her, "It will take a very long time to develop, and my daughter might not even be able to use the treatment," and "They need to collect the child's cells and tissues from her buttocks and thighs."

She said, "I will do everything as instructed," and added, "I never dreamed a day like this would come. I feel sad and sorry thinking of other children who went to heaven before. I hope the process moves quickly now that it has started. I love Samsung."

Mucolipidosis, also called mucopolysaccharidosis, is a very rare disease. It is known to occur due to a genetic enzyme deficiency and appears within eight months after birth. It is accompanied by cognitive and visual impairments, and currently, no treatment has been discovered.

As of this day, Chairman Lee's SNS account, which has about 383,000 followers, is an impersonation account not actually managed by Samsung Electronics or Chairman Lee. When some netizens mistakenly believed this account was managed by Chairman Lee, Samsung Electronics stated, "Chairman Lee does not operate any SNS accounts."