Jinhae Attorney | Assisting a Nurse Subject to a Medical Criminal Complaint for Occupational Negligence Causing Death, Resulting in a No Prosecution Disposition

The victim in the Jinhae attorney's client's case, after being admitted to the intensive care unit following surgery, exhibited behavioral disturbances and the like, and was therefore fitted with a restraint.

The client calmed the victim and checked the victim's condition at intervals of 5 to 10 minutes.

Thereafter, the victim continued to be uncontrollable and uncooperative with the course of treatment.

While the Jinhae attorney's client was continuously checking the victim's condition, the client confirmed that the victim was unconscious and that no pulse could be measured, and immediately notified a physician; the physicians confirmed the victim's cardiac arrest and took measures such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but the victim died.

The requirements for establishing occupational negligence causing death, the charge against the Jinhae attorney's client, are that the person be engaged in an occupation, that fault, such as a breach of the duty of care, be recognized, that there be a causal relationship, and that the result of death occur, among others.

The Jinhae attorney's client continuously checked the victim's condition up until 10 minutes before the victim's cardiac arrest occurred.

The client applied all of the patient monitoring devices before the victim's cardiac arrest occurred.

In addition, because the client did everything possible by way of medical care, immediately notifying a physician upon confirming that there was an abnormality in the victim, it is difficult to conclude that the victim died as a result of the client's breach of the duty of care, and it can be seen that there was no occupational negligence.

It is difficult to conclude that there was a causal relationship between the Jinhae attorney's client's act and the victim's death.

The victim was of advanced age, was in a state of high bleeding risk from having undergone surgery, and was already in a critical condition from the time of admission to the intensive care unit.

The client merely did everything possible as a nurse by way of medical care.

Considering all the circumstances, it cannot be concluded that the victim came to die as a result of the act of the client, who was a nurse, and therefore there is no causal relationship between the client's act and the victim's death.