"Family Requested Amputation"... Caught on Camera Putting Body Part in Recycling Bag?

[Anchor]

We reported yesterday (June 18) that a human leg part discovered at a recycling center in Incheon belonged to a patient hospitalized at a nearby nursing hospital. During police questioning, the hospital stated that the amputation was inevitable due to advanced necrosis, and that a cleaning volunteer mistook the bandaged limb for a plaster cast and placed it in a recycling bag.

Reporter Kim Gyu-ri has the story.

[Reporter]

Police confirmed that the human leg part found at a recycling center in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, on the 10th belonged to a patient at a local nursing hospital.

The patient is a woman in her 80s who was admitted on the 1st, and the hospital claims the leg was amputated in her hospital room on the 8th.

Regarding the fact that the amputation took place in a hospital room rather than an operating room, a hospital official told police that the necrosis had progressed to such an extent that anesthesia was not even necessary.

[Lee Heon / Chief of Detective Division, Incheon Yeonsu Police Station: The patient's condition was so severe that no other hospital would accept her. The family stated that they had desperately requested the hospital to take her in, and the hospital complied.]

The hospital explains that after the patient was told at another hospital that further treatment was difficult, the family sought out this nursing hospital and requested admission, which the hospital accepted.

Based on these statements and expert consultations, the police plan to determine whether performing an amputation outside of an operating room constitutes a violation of the law.

Regarding the lax management of medical waste, the hospital told police that a cleaning volunteer mistook the bandaged amputated leg for a plaster cast.

They claimed it was mistaken for a cast because it was hard. It has been confirmed that hospital CCTV footage captured the scene of the limb, which was in a medical waste bag, being transferred into a recycling bag.

The police plan to scale down the investigation headquarters, which had been composed of about 100 personnel due to suspicions of a violent crime, into a dedicated investigation team and continue the probe into whether the hospital violated the Wastes Control Act and the Medical Service Act.

(Video coverage: Lim Dong-guk, Video editing: Jo Mu-hwan, Design: Kang Yoon-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.