By Kim Bo-eun
Calls are mounting to provide better support for nationwide trauma centers, after surgeon Lee Cook-jong who is treating a North Korean soldier defector spoke of poor conditions.
At a press conference Wednesday, Lee said “A nurse who was six months pregnant was dispatched on a helicopter (to an emergency scene) due to the lack of personnel.”
Lee also said that the severe trauma center at Ajou University Hospital, which is equipped to accommodate 100 patients, currently holds 150.
According to reports, the surgeon works 36-hour shifts and is on the verge of losing the sight in his left eye.
A week earlier, after the soldier arrived at the hospital, a petition appeared on Cheong Wa Dae’s website, seeking greater support for trauma centers.
“Trauma centers are disliked by the hospitals they are affiliated to, because the more patients they treat, the bigger a deficit they see,” it said.
“Many aspiring doctors who enter medical school with hopes of taking on the honorable mission of saving lives give up in during their surgical studies due to the tough conditions they face.”
The petition called for systematic, environmental and personnel support for nationwide trauma centers.
“People criticize the students’ choices, saying they went to medical school only for the monetary compensation. However, the problem lies in the state system,” it said.
Over 176,000 people have supported the petition as of Friday. Cheong Wa Dae has made it a rule that if a petition on its website gets more than 200,000 supporters within a one-month period, the presidential office will provide a response.
Lee has reemerged as a national hero after saving the life of the North Korean soldier who sustained multiple gunshot wounds while crossing the military demarcation line within the Joint Security Area.
The defector had been in a critical condition but survived after he was flown to the Ajou University Hospital in Suwon and underwent two operations performed by Lee.
The soldier was also found to have been infected with parasitic worms, as well as suffering from tuberculosis and hepatitis B.
The defector is now in a stable condition, according to reports.
In 2011, Lee gained attention after he treated and saved Captain Seok Hae-kyun, who sustained multiple gunshot injuries when his ship was rescued from Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
The Washington Post wrote about Lee in an article titled “For North Korean soldier’s recovery, South Koreans are pinning their hopes on this doctor.”
Lee trained as a surgeon in surgical critical care at the University of California San Diego Medical Center and worked for the Royal London Hospital Trauma Center, before coming to Ajou University Hospital.