Medical staff at Open Clinic, busy evacuating patients when firefighters entered
“I need to appoint a doctor” The voice is high… Police are analyzing CCTV inside the hospital
At the scene of a fire at a hospital building in Icheon, Gyeonggi, there are growing calls for the appointment of a nurse Hyun Eun-kyung (50), who died while guarding the patient, as a doctor.
According to Yonhap News coverage on the 7th, the fire department, who received a report that there was a fire in the Haksan Building in Gwango-dong, Icheon-si, at 10:17 am on the 5th, arrived at the scene in 6 minutes and started to extinguish the fire, while 33 patients were treated. I entered the Open Clinic, a dialysis specialized hospital that was receiving treatment.
This is because the fire that started at the screen golf course on the 3rd floor, which was the location of the ignition, caused a large amount of smoke to go up to the 4th floor, which is immediately above, and cause large-scale casualties.
Even when the firefighters entered the hospital, the hospital’s medical staff were busy evacuating the elderly patients.
Those who could walk were sent downstairs using the stairs, and some were evacuated to the roof and asked for rescue.
It is said that the nurses were unable to open their eyes as they cut the catapult tube connected to the patient’s wrist with scissors and then pulled them out.
A medical staff who took the patients out of the hospital met with Yonhap News and said, “Someone said ‘smoke’, but the smoke came up really quickly. It all came up, and I couldn’t see right away,” he said at the time.
Another medical staff said, “We didn’t know either.
After taking the patients out, after a long time, I looked to see who came out or not, and there was no (the current nurse).
Icheon Fire Chief Jang Jae-gu said at an on-site briefing, “When the firefighters entered, the nurses were doing something next to the patient.”
The police have secured CCTV footage and are closely examining the situation inside the hospital at the time of the fire.
This is to determine the route of smoke spread from the fire and the cause of death.
However, nothing is known about the CCTV contents yet.
The police plan to investigate the situation at the time of the fire, if necessary, targeting 13 medical staff who were in the hospital at the time.
However, the investigation is expected to take some time as most of the medical staff, such as nurses, are either currently receiving treatment or need stability due to injuries such as breathing smoke while evacuating the patient.
At the time of the fire, statements and circumstances that the medical staff in the hospital were working hard to evacuate and rescue patients have emerged from various places, raising calls for the current nurse to be designated as a doctor.
Physicians and casualties are people who have died or been injured while risking their own lives and bodies in order to save the lives or bodies of others who are endangered due to acts other than their duties.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare decides on the case through the Physician Case Review Committee, and a strict investigation must precede this.
In this fire, it is expected that the designation of the doctor will be decided after confirming the relief activities of the medical staff including Hyun by analyzing the CCTV video containing the situation at the time and listening to the statements of the rescued patients.
It is currently unknown what the outcome will be.
However, a medical staff who died while evacuating patients during the fire at Miryang Sejong Hospital in January 2018, which can be said to be a similar case in the past, was recognized as a doctor.
Kim Jeom-ja, a nurse, and Ra-hee Kim, 36, a nurse’s assistant at the time, noticed that the fire was caused by the ignition of the electrical wiring on the ceiling of the bathroom in the emergency room on the first floor. and evacuated the patients while running around the hospital room.
Then, he moved to the elevator to quickly evacuate the four patients with reduced mobility to the first floor, but he died of suffocation from smoke in the elevator due to a sudden power outage.
Kwon Seong-dong, Acting Representative of the People’s Power Party and floor leader Kwon Seong-dong, said through SNS, “The deceased showed special devotion to the evacuation of dialysis patients during the Icheon Hospital fire, and made a sad sacrifice in the process.” “National courtesy through designation of a doctor is the rest of us.
I will make an active suggestion to the government and work hard to designate a doctor for the deceased.”
Shin Kyung-rim, president of the Korean Nursing Association, said, “I will never forget the spirit of sacrifice of the current nurse who protected the patient’s life until the end. will operate,” he said.
In addition, online posts such as “Nurse Eun-kyung Hyun’s designation as a doctor is natural”, “I pray for nurse Eun-kyung Hyun who gave her life to save the patient’s life,” and “He is a hero of this age.”
/yunhap news