3-Year Prison Sentence and the Kwon Dae-hee Law: The 7-Year Fight for Operating Room CCTV

On September 8, 2016, a 25-year-old university student identified as Kwon Dae-hee suffered massive blood loss reaching 3,500cc during a facial contouring procedure at a plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam, Seoul. The patient was left unattended with a nurse’s aide performing manual pressure for approximately 30 minutes while the director operated on other individuals, leading to a 49-day stay in an intensive care unit and his eventual death.

The 3,500cc Blood Loss and Unmonitored Patient Room

The plastic surgery clinic operated multiple operating rooms simultaneously, sequentially anesthetizing and suturing patients across rooms. Director Jang left Kwon without a doctor present to handle the severe hemorrhaging, and the patient never received a necessary blood transfusion before being transferred to a university hospital emergency room around midnight.

Surviving family members filed a complaint one month after the incident, but prosecutors initially indicted only for professional negligence resulting in death in November 2019, dropping charges against the nurse’s aide for unlicensed medical practice. When higher authorities dismissed the initial appeal, the victim’s mother filed a fiscal application directly with the court.

The 0.3 Percent Fiscal Application Reversal

The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 31 accepted the fiscal application in October 2020, ordering prosecutors to indict the director, a colleague, and the nurse’s aide on additional charges of violating the Medical Service Act through unlicensed medical practice. Fiscal applications carry an acceptance rate of approximately 0.3 percent.

In civil proceedings, a court ordered the hospital to pay 430 million won in damages, fixing liability at 80 percent. The victim’s mother, Lee Na-geum, reviewed medical records, appraisal results, and operating room CCTV footage independently to prove medical negligence, staged a one-person protest for 416 days, and subsequently assumed leadership of the Medical Justice Practice Solidarity, a civic organization supporting medical accident victims.

The Three-Year Prison Sentence and the Kwon Dae-hee Act

The trial court sentenced the director to three years in imprisonment and a 5 million won fine, placing him under court custody. The appellate court increased the fine to 10 million won after finding him guilty of falsely creating anesthesia records, noting that the medical staff structure prevented physicians from dedicating attention to a single patient, which caused them to miss opportunities for close observation, surgical intervention, or patient transfer.

On January 12, 2023, the Supreme Court finalized the three-year prison sentence and 10 million won fine for the director, alongside a suspended prison sentence for the colleague, and a 3 million won fine with a sentence suspension for the nurse’s aide. The case prompted the implementation of the Kwon Dae-hee Act in September 2023, which mandates the installation of closed-circuit television cameras inside operating rooms.