Doctors covered for colleague who dropped baby that died at Seoul hospital, police say
- It is alleged a third doctor dropped the newborn as it was being taken to an intensive care unit at the Cha Bundang Medical Centre
South Korean police on Tuesday asked for arrest warrants for two doctors accused of attempting to cover up an incident in which a third doctor dropped a newborn baby, resulting in its death.
Pre-trial arrest warrants in South Korea allow authorities to take the accused in custody until a trial opens.
The preterm baby, born through a caesarian section, was being rushed to an intensive care unit by a doctor, who slipped and fell to the ground while holding the baby at a hospital in the prosperous Bundang District in the southern suburbs of Seoul in 2016.
The baby sustained skull fractures and bleeding in the brain and died six hours later.
“The two doctors [allegedly] played leading roles in covering up the incident”, by lying to the parents that the baby died of an illness and forging medical documents about the cause of death, a police detective told the South China Morning Post.
A third doctor, who dropped the baby, also faces charges of manslaughter, he said.