The two families of patient 80 of MERS turned upside down and got lost … Law “Without responsibility of the State”

[아시아경제 조성필 기자] In 2015, the sentence of the first trial, which recognized the national responsibility to compensate the 80th patient who died of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), was overturned in the appeal trial.

On the afternoon of the 26th, the Seoul Superior Court Ninth Division of Civil Affairs (Chief Judge Son Cheol-woo) ruled that the plaintiff lost in a lawsuit filed against the state, Samsung Life Insurance Public Interest Foundation and Seoul National University Hospital for the grieving families of Patient A with MERS. Earlier, the first trial court ruled in favor of some of the plaintiffs, saying that the state should pay Mr. A 20 million won.

The Court of Appeals considered that “as alleged by the survivors, even if the diagnostic tests and epidemiological investigations were carried out in time for MERS 1 at that time, the infection of patient 14, which is presumed to be the confirmation of Mr. A It couldn’t be helped. ” He also said: “Even if the epidemiological investigation was carried out on patient 14 in a timely manner, it is difficult to conclude that Mr. A. would have received the opportunity for early diagnosis and treatment.”

A visited Samsung Medical Center for follow-up lymphoma treatment in May 2015 and died after battling the disease in November of the same year after being infected with MERS from patient 14. As a result, the surviving family filed a lawsuit. for damages worth 300 million won, alleging that the patient died due to poor government response to quarantine and hospital negligence.

Reporter Cho Seong-pil [email protected]