Court orders to compensate MERS patient's family 100 mil.

Samsung Medical Center. / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

The Seoul Central District Court said, Monday, it has ordered the government and Samsung Medical Center to pay 100 million won ($89,000) in compensation to the bereaved family of a man who died from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015.

The court ruled that the government failed to properly carry out an epidemiologic investigation into the disease in the early stages of the epidemic and thus failed to prevent the man from coming into contact with another MERS patient who was hospitalized at the medical center in Seoul. It ruled the hospital also failed to properly screen those who came into contact with the first MERS patient.

The man contracted MERS from the 14th confirmed patient, when he brought his wife and daughter to the emergency room at the hospital. He died 18 days after he was diagnosed.

The bereaved family filed a lawsuit against the country and the hospital for neglecting their responsibility to warn other people at the medical institution of the risk of exposure to MERS and failing to prevent the epidemic from spreading.

The bereaved family demanded 172 million won in compensation, but the court stated the state and the hospital were 50 percent responsible for his death, saying there was no vaccine against MERS and its fatality rate reaches 40 percent.

The hospital will have to pay about 10 percent of the money and the state must cover the rest.