Suwon Nambu Police Charge Doctor with Professional Negligence Causing Death
Patient in His 30s Dies After Sedation Anesthesia Procedure
Police Request Autopsy from National Forensic Service
A man in his 30s who was undergoing a procedure under sedation anesthesia at a clinic in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, went into cardiac arrest and died, prompting the police to launch an investigation.
According to Yonhap News Agency on the 11th, citing the Suwon Nambu Police Station, the incident was reported. It stated that at around 3:42 p.m. on the 25th of last month, a 119 emergency call was received from a clinic in Paldal-gu, Suwon, reporting that "a patient undergoing a procedure went into cardiac arrest."
At the time, the clinic was administering sedation anesthesia to a man in his 30s, Mr. A, for a skin beauty procedure, and when Mr. A suddenly went into cardiac arrest, the clinic staff called 119.
Mr. A was transported by paramedics to a nearby university hospital but passed away on the 9th, 15 days later. The police have criminally charged the doctor, Mr. B, who performed the procedure, with professional negligence causing death and are currently investigating. The police recently requested an autopsy of Mr. A's body from the National Forensic Service.
Meanwhile, sedation anesthesia is also called ‘conscious sedation.’ Unlike general anesthesia, it does not render the patient completely unconscious but keeps them in a semi-conscious state to reduce pain. Drugs such as propofol are mainly used, and due to its short recovery time, it is known as a relatively simple procedure. For this reason, it is widely used in various fields such as health checkups, dental treatments, and skin procedures. When performing skin procedures, caution is needed as there is a misconception that sedation anesthesia is light and harmless.
In South Korea, propofol was classified as a psychotropic drug, a type of narcotic, in 2011 due to problems with its abuse for procedures. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety specifies propofol as a drug with a high potential for abuse in the ‘Safety Use Standards for Medical Narcotics Propofol.’ It also recommends that the number of propofol administrations for simple procedures and diagnostics should not exceed once per month.
As the problem of propofol abuse has grown, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety intends to utilize the Narcotics Integrated Management System (NIMS) more actively. All medical personnel must report medical narcotics prescription details to the Ministry’s Narcotics Integrated Management System.
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