Korean Hospital Demands American Parents Make $21,000 Payment to Get Back Son’s Body

Here is a very odd story of a son’s body being used as a bargaining chip for payment by a Seoul hospital:

Gregory Allen, 31, was a child and youth program assistant at the Child Development Center on Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, South Korea. His parents said they struggled to retrieve his body after he died on Jan. 2 during open-heart surgery at a South Korean hospital.

An Alabama couple was locked in a web of bureaucracy as they fought for a week to retrieve their son’s body after he died Jan. 2 in a South Korean hospital, leaving a $24,000 bill for his care.

Gregory Allen, a 31-year-old civilian employee at the Child Development Center on the Army’s Yongsan Garrison, died during open-heart surgery after he arrived on Dec. 30 at Soon Chun Hyang University hospital in Seoul in a disoriented state.

Allen’s parents flew to Seoul as soon as they heard Gregory had fallen ill and found him on Jan. 1 the intensive care unit. The official cause of death was pulmonary embolism, his parents said.

“We were shocked,” said his father, Leroy Allen Jr., a retired soldier from Madison, Ala., who had served in South Korea.

He and his wife, Margie, had little time to grieve. They said hospital officials handed them the bill and demanded payment before Gregory’s body would be released.

They gave the hospital $3,000 but didn’t have the rest. Gregory Allen’s insurance policy covered 80% of the cost, but it took time to process the claim.

“This was like 3 o’clock in the morning and they’re asking me for $21,000,” Gregory’s father told Stars and Stripes in an interview Tuesday. “Now they’re charging 90,000 won (about $80) every day that he’s sitting in that freezer in that hospital until that $21,000 is paid off.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

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J6Junkie
J6Junkie
4 years ago

Sooncheonhyang is a piece of crap hospital anyway. Not the first time that a foreigner has died after being admitted to there.

Tagum City Tim
Tagum City Tim
4 years ago

The first thing that I would do upon getting custody of the body would be to have an autopsy done to check the official cause of death. As @J6Junkie said, Sooncheonhyang Hospital is a piece of crap hospital.

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

So terribly sad for any parents to bury their children.

Flyingsword
Flyingsword
4 years ago

shaving a recruit’s head is a human rights abuse but this is fine. Strange place this is….

Mcgeehee
Mcgeehee
4 years ago

The “Yongsan Leftovers” page on Facebook is chock full of compliments about how genuinely good this guy was with the children at the daycare center he worked on post.

Mcgeehee
Mcgeehee
4 years ago

Ref Korean hospitals, Song Do Colorectal Hospital in Seoul was the best place in the world to get hemorrhoids removed (3 big painful ones). From start to finish, the whole experience was a beacon of customer service and attention to detail. Beats any American hospital experience hands down.

JoeC
JoeC
4 years ago

“3 big painful ones” — We need a TMI emoji — 😮

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

It hurts reading about some types of surgery… and sometimes too much info is too much info ..

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

JoeC, maybe we could just use ➡ ➡ ➡

Mcgeehee
Mcgeehee
4 years ago

TMI?

I have pictures (upon request).

Not suitable for work, public, … or home for that matter.

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

Mcgeehee,

Please understand that we believe you and respect you as a trusted and highly-valued member of the community; but…

I mean, no one wants to see the photos of the surgery I had on my face and jaw, where they cut me, how they reconstructed me, where they placed the drains, and so on. And although we’re talking about opposite ends of the GI tract, neither set of photos belong on GI’s blog. 😀

In fact, I’ve provided too much info. Sorry… 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
4 years ago

Just when it seems within my grasp, it seems as if there is some sort of conspiracy to deny me the pictorial information I need to construct my very own ROK Drop Human Centipede.

setnaffa
setnaffa
4 years ago

Well, CH, if you’re buying the buffet I guess I can offer an appetizer and suggest that not all feeding tubes run through the nose are comfortable…

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