Homeless Swedish Man Dies After 21 Korean Hospitals Deny Him Medical Care
The moral of this story is that if you are a foreigner in Korea make sure you bring enough money to provide medical care for yourself if needed:
Sgt. Park Ah-ron, Korea’s only police officer dedicated to assisting the unhoused, took charge of the case. Park contacted 21 hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area but was met with refusals. Hospitals cited the 64-year-old’s foreign nationality and the high cost of surgery as reasons for rejection.
Efforts to reach his sister in Sweden were also unsuccessful, as she declined to cover the medical expenses.
Finally, with the help of the Seoul Homeless Support Center, Park identified a hospital in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province — Hyeogsin Seongmo Hospital — that agreed to perform the surgery after consultations with its director.
Using a translator to communicate with the Swedish national, Park obtained his consent for the surgery. On Dec. 16, the 64-year-old underwent a successful amputation. Despite the successful procedure, he passed away on Dec. 20 due to sepsis stemming from pneumonia. Hospital staff explained that his severely weakened immune system had contributed to his death.
Before his passing, the Swedish national, who had diabetes, requested and enjoyed a piece of chocolate as a small comfort in his final moments.
Exposing systemic gaps
Park expressed frustration over the lack of welfare support for foreign nationals in Korea. “I reached out to the local government for support with surgery costs, but foreign nationals are not eligible for medical aid as vagrants,” he said.
You can read more at the link.
Should have just flown him back to Sweden first off. Why should Korea be burdened with other countries’ homeless. Korea is about to have enough homeless of their own when the commies cement their control.
Kudos to that hospital for not turning away the poor dude. It’s so unfortunate that an easily treatable condition turned into death due to lack of care and compassion. A little compassion is sorely needed at a time when there’s so much hate generated. Just look at this forum, and the comment above.
chinabot is totally on board with deadbeats stealing from people who work. Maybe because he’s a deadbeat
Sweden has “free” healthcare. Someone that poor and ill should not be traveling anyway.
This is not hate. Hate is taking money from Koreans at gunpoint to pay for random foreigners. Hate is going to a foreign country and demanding they give you free services—in effect making the medical team slaves.
Don’t be like this dead guy or a chinabot. Pay your own way.
Don’t be like dead guy’s sister, either.
Let’s see if the sister suddenly has concern for her poor brother, murdered by a hospital in the prime of his life.
No good deed goes unpunished.
The older I get, the more I learn that some people can (and should) be helped but you should run from others and hope they curl up and die.
Looking at this, the logical conclusion is that 21 hospitals made the right choice and one did not.
Hopefully, there are no bad reprocussions for their generosity which reinforce the decisions of 21 other hospitals.
A bit more information:
– he was busted for drugs
– found not guilty (insanity and lack of intent)
– prosecutor appealed
– was on immigration hold
– had gangrene in his leg
– Swedish embassy got this started
– cop arranged it
– Swedish embassy covered $8000
– hospital covered $2000
Based on this information…
In order of blame:
Prosecutor – just couldnt let it go and deport… wasting taxpayer money with NO gain to society… just to waste more taxpayer money incidently. These kind of people shoukd have no power over anything
Swedish guy – insane druggie subhuman with diseases that can spread… not even suited for Soylent Green… no business in Korea… back to Sweden in the cargo hold… not our problem, even if some powertripping prosecutor wants it to be.
21 hospitals – come on, what do you care if you get paid $8000 or $10000 to cut off a leg? Give the job to an intern and write it off as a training expense. However, there is likely missing information on why they didn’t want to get involved.
1 hospital – you tried, good job. Sorry it didnt work out. (Did you give it to the intern?)
Swedish Embassy – That is so swedish. They are great people. They have made ultra liberalism work for themselves… except ultraliberalism is eventually self-destructive… so they let in a lot of people who dont want to play by the rules of their system that only works if you play by the rules. This is why the swedish right is growing. But the swedish are still great people.
The Cop – that must be a thankless job. Good luck, cop.