Autopsy planned for Shin Hae-chul's body
The late singer Shin Hae-chul’s friends, including rapper Psy, front left, mourn his death at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Friday. His body will be examined to find what exactly led him to die. His family decided to change their plan of cremating the body at the last minute. / Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
The late Shin Hae-chul
The family of late singer Shin-Hae chul decided to put his cremation on hold at the last minute Friday morning.
Now an autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.
Shin, 46, died of brain damage after a prolonged state of unconsciousness following a heart attack Monday.
According to KCA Entertainment, Shin’s agency, his family decided to ask for an autopsy after his friends had requested it amid mounting questions about the cause of his death.
The decision was made while they were heading to the Seoul Memorial Park where Shin’s family initially planned to cremate his body.
His celebrity friends from singers to actors held a press conference at the cremation chamber and said it was “necessary to find the truth” behind the death as many people suspect that a hospital that treated him committed medical errors during abdominal surgery.
“For his family, it’s like the world is caving in,” rapper Psy told reporters. “We just want to know the truth.”
Meanwhile, the family and KCA filed a complaint for medical malpractice against Seoul Sky Hospital, where he underwent surgery on Oct. 17 to treat intestinal adhesions and obstruction.
“We have decided to hold the hospital accountable for his death after discussing the matter with his family,” KCA said. “We have already hired a lawyer.”
The agency said it has collected facts to figure out what exactly led to his death after the surgery.
His family and agency believe that medical malpractice during surgery eventually led him to have a heart attack. They are not even sure whether he only had the surgery he had agreed to.
His wife Yoon Won-hee claimed that the doctor, who operated on Shin, also performed surgery to reduce the size of his stomach without his or the family’s consent.
“The doctor told me that he felt it needed to be done,” Yoon said, adding she protested strongly.
“After the surgery, my husband complained of severe pain. He asked Sky Hospital to restore his stomach to its original condition, if it had done something to it.”
She said that the hospital failed to properly treat him when he complained of pain after the surgery.
“They just said pain and fever were natural after an operation.”
KCA also said, “Seoul Sky Hospital has not apologized for what it did, let alone offer its condolences.”
In 2009, Shin reportedly had an adjustable gastric banding operation, a type of weight loss surgery, at the hospital.
A memorial service was held at Asan Medical Center in Seoul early Friday morning, with some 300 family members, friends and fans bidding him farewell.
Singer Seo Tai-ji, who is a relative of Shin, said in a memorial address that Korean musicians owed him a lot. “Thank you for letting us listen to the best music always. I wanted to tell you that you’re awesome. I ask people to remember the name of Shin, who gave us beautiful memories and music,” he said.