The family of a woman in her 30s who died at a psychiatric hospital run by well-known psychiatrist Yang Jae-woong appeared before a parliamentary audit and sharply criticized police for a flawed initial investigation.
The victim's mother, identified only as A, testified as a witness at the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee's audit of the Gyeonggi Nambu and Bukbu Provincial Police Agencies on the 13th. "My daughter was admitted to treat a dependence on diet pills, and she died in an isolation room just 17 days later," she said. "For several days she pleaded to be sent to an emergency room because of abdominal pain, but she did not even receive proper care."
A pointed to delays in the police investigation and the failure to secure evidence. "We asked the hospital for the CCTV footage right after her death and received it 12 hours later, but the 21 minutes of footage from the early morning hours when she was dying was missing," she said. "Even so, police did not search the hospital until six months after her death, and then halted the investigation on the grounds that an expert opinion from the medical association was delayed."
"While police had the investigation on hold, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea was the first to establish that nursing records had been falsified and that physical restraints had been used illegally without a doctor's order," she added. "I want to ask what the police, who had even carried out a search, were doing all that time."
The family called for a thorough reinvestigation and punishment of those responsible, demanding that doctors be required to give direct orders for isolation and restraint and that record tampering be prevented, that CCTV footage from isolation rooms be preserved as a legal requirement and provided to families immediately, and that an external monitoring system be set up for closed wards.
Rep. Kim Ye-ji of the People Power Party said the Bucheon Wonmi Police Station had failed to act. "If electronic medical records and access logs had been secured quickly right after the incident, it would have been possible to verify whether the records had been altered, but the station neglected to do so," she said. "A thorough review is also needed of the fact that the official who directed the investigation at the time has since been promoted to head of the investigation review section at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency."
Rep. Kang Myung-koo of the same party joined the criticism. "Police failed to conduct a proper investigation for six months and only belatedly reopened it after the human rights commission's inquiry," he said. "If it is true that the person responsible for the initial investigation now holds a post directing the investigation, this is a cover-up and a textbook case of protecting one's own."
Kim Hong-keun, acting commissioner of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, partly acknowledged shortcomings in the initial investigation, including the failure to secure electronic records on the day of the death. On measures such as disciplinary action against those who led the investigation, he said, "We will determine exactly what was done wrong and then set out our position."
Nurses and nursing assistants at the hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, which Yang operated, are suspected of causing the death of the woman, identified only as C, by failing to take appropriate action when she complained of abdominal pain on May 27, 2024. C was admitted to the hospital around May 10, 2024, for treatment of diet pill addiction. She died on May 27, 17 days after admission, while undergoing restraint and isolation treatment. An autopsy estimated the cause of death as acute pseudo-obstruction of the bowel.