Sudden Death from Pulmonary Embolism After Hip Fracture Surgery
Court Considers Expected Life Span and Military Pension
A court ruling has ordered a hospital to compensate over 400 million KRW to the family of an American who suddenly died after hip fracture surgery. On the 26th, according to the legal community, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 15 (Chief Judge Choi Gyu-yeon) partially ruled in favor of the plaintiff, ordering the defendants?the hospital and the attending physician?to jointly pay approximately 423 million KRW in damages in a lawsuit filed by the family of A, a U.S. Army civilian employee (aged 59 at the time of death).
On August 17, 2019, around 2 p.m., A fell on a rainy road while riding a bicycle and fractured his left hip. That night, he underwent hip pin insertion surgery at the hospital and was discharged on the 23rd, six days later, after being assessed as stable. However, on the fourth day after discharge, the 27th, his condition suddenly worsened, and he was transferred to another hospital's emergency room but died 2 hours and 30 minutes later. An autopsy by the National Forensic Service revealed the cause of death as pulmonary thromboembolism (pulmonary embolism).
The family filed a damages lawsuit seeking approximately 1.576 billion KRW, claiming that A’s death was due to the hospital’s negligence. The court recognized that "the medical staff were negligent in preventive measures and failed to fulfill their duty to provide guidance and explanation," and acknowledged the likelihood that this negligence caused the death, ruling partially in favor of the plaintiff. They accepted research findings that pulmonary embolism occurs more frequently in Westerners than East Asians and that the risk increases with age, recognizing that the surgery A underwent was a risk factor for pulmonary embolism.
Based on studies showing that the period of highest risk for pulmonary embolism after hip surgery is within 2 weeks to 1 month, with risk continuing up to 3 months, the court judged that appropriate preventive measures should have been taken. The medical staff administered anticoagulants for only 3 days and did not implement therapies such as anti-thrombotic stockings (compression stockings), so it was deemed insufficient to consider that adequate measures were taken to prevent pulmonary embolism. Furthermore, since A’s hospitalization period was shortened from the original plan, the court held that the risk of pulmonary embolism should have been more carefully considered, and the medical staff had an obligation to provide guidance and explanation regarding the importance and specific information about pulmonary embolism prevention to A.
The court stated, "If continuous prescription of anticoagulants, physical preventive methods, or guidance and explanation on exercise therapy had been implemented, it is highly likely that pulmonary embolism would not have occurred." Considering the American man’s life expectancy (82.9 years), the court estimated A’s working life until age 70, in 2030, calculated the damages by converting future wages and military pension into present value, and assigned 30% responsibility to the defendants.
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