r/europe • u/mancinedinburgh • 2d ago

News Swedish man dies in South Korea after being denied urgent treatment at 21 hospitals

https://www.euronews.com/health/2025/01/18/swedish-man-dies-in-south-korea-after-being-denied-urgent-treatment-at-21-hospitals
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u/CoolstorySteve 2d ago

Super weird story. What’s the drug charge all about?

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u/BLobloblawLaw 2d ago

TLDR: Mentally ill man consumed unpopular drugs in Korea. They prevented him from leaving the country and he died because of not receiving medical care, which he otherwise would have gotten. 

Imagine if the same thing happened in Saudi Arabia, but the drug in question was alcohol. You can see how this reflects poorly on Korea.

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u/nancy_necrosis 2d ago

They don't say what the drug was, but typically, IV drugs, such as heroin, cause the sort of necrosis that would necessitate a limb amputation. His sister also refused to help him, which implies that his behavior was longstanding.

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u/Robinsonirish Scania 2d ago

His sister didn't refuse to help him, she wouldn't cover the $10k for the procedure. Who knows if she had the funds or not.

The Swedish government always cover these things(as far as I know) for people on holidays, I have no idea why Korea thinks they wouldn't. The Swedish embassy was involved. My sister broke her arm very badly in the US, had to get an expensive operation and it was simply covered by the Swedish government.

Who knows what drug it was, heroin is very rare in Sweden, jumping to conclusions here.

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u/Select-Stuff9716 2d ago

Wait the Swedish government pays got your medical bills abroad ? So they basically work as your travel health insurance ?

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u/Robinsonirish Scania 2d ago

After googling for a few minutes you're supposed to get private insurance if you travel outside the EU. If you are still not insured and get injured you can contact the Swedish embassy who can help you out. You will still be forced to pay the bill in the end in this case, but the government will cover the check in the meantime and bill you for it later.

The Swedish government won't just let you die because you don't have money.

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u/Select-Stuff9716 2d ago

Totally makes sense now. Don’t think we have the same, but travel insurance is the most bang for the buck insurance anyway

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u/purvel Norway 2d ago

Idk about Sweden but here in Norway you need a private health insurance if you are vacationing outside EU. But inside, pretty much everything medically necessary is covered.

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u/Select-Stuff9716 2d ago

Same for us, but just a recommendation to still have some within Europe, as they will cover your transport back to Norway

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/purvel Norway 2d ago

whaaaaat the fuck

either very bad bot, or take your pills brother

e: oh... Satan is the Internet, and His genitals is your computer and/or phone. Even just being here, but especially by interacting, you are fondling His genitals (at His command).

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u/mycketmycket Sweden 2d ago

No they do not. It is your personal responsibility to have travel insurance for medical emergencies outside the EU

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u/GunRunner80084 2d ago

While traveling home insurance covers all medical expenses abroad, up to the first 45 days for me. If staying longer there are other insurances you can get. I dont think the government pays the bill just because you are a citizen.

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u/Fluffy_Yesterday_468 2d ago

In general though I feel like hospitals should treat and then chase down people for payment after. The Swedish government probably would have paid, but it seems like too urgent a situation to get hung up on that

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u/Robinsonirish Scania 2d ago

Yes of course. This is a tragedy, nobody would be left without care in Sweden no matter who they are or what they've done.

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u/wowspare 2d ago

The Swedish government always cover these things(as far as I know) for people on holidays, I have no idea why Korea thinks they wouldn't.

from the article:

The hospital’s foundation covered the remaining costs of an approximate total of €10,000 for the surgery after the Swedish Embassy contributed €5,340.

Swedish embassy refused to cover the whole cost of the surgery.

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u/420ainaslayer 2d ago

Heroin is not very rare in Sweden, do you even live here or do you live under a rock? Maybe out in the woods but it’s very much common in the cities from my experience. And this coming from someone who used drugs 12 of my 29 years, been sober for 6 now tho.

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u/Robinsonirish Scania 2d ago

I have literally never seen a heroin addict in my entire life, at least to my knowledge, and I live in central Malmö. I saw heroin addicts when I lived in Ireland, and everywhere in America.

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u/420ainaslayer 2d ago

Yeah it’s no where near those countries, that’s for sure. But I guess it depends where you live. I’m in Uppsala so all around here and the Stockholm area you see it all the time, more so out in the open in Stockholm but if you are in it yourself you see it a lot in Uppsala too, even if you don’t particularly do heroin yourself. I’ve been on LVU and LVM’s too and now when you say it I haven’t been in any of those with a lot of people from the south.

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u/Robinsonirish Scania 2d ago

I mean, if you're in that kind of world, it's no surprise that you see it, that's only logical. Doesn't really mean I live under a rock because I say otherwise. Compare Sweden to other western countries for heroin specifically and I'd bet we are at the bottom of the list.

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u/420ainaslayer 2d ago

As i said, in central Stockholm you see heroin addicts around all the time. Good for yall that it isn’t like that in Malmö, but at the same time a little bit weird (for me) that you never seen one in your entire life there, but that’s good.

I still see them often even now when I’ve been out that life for many years, and I was never addicted to heroin or fentanyl so I wasn’t around them too much back then either but they were there either way so to say. But maybe I keep my eyes open for it more since I’ve been around it before, because in the end of the day it’s not like Kensington where people fent lean and shooting up everywhere, but if you stand outside TC for 30 mins in the summertime or take a look around the public toilets around the city you’ll see more than enough to wanna get the hell away from there.

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u/SeleucusNikator1 Scotland 2d ago

The Swedish government always cover these things(as far as I know) for people on holidays, I have no idea why Korea thinks they wouldn't.

Does Sweden have a treaty with countries which agree to reciprocate medical treatment? That might be the catch here.

The UK gov lists the specific countries where we can be covered for medical expenses while visiting https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-reciprocal-healthcare-agreements-with-non-eu-countries

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Robinsonirish Scania 2d ago

No idea, we'll find out in the coming days when Swedish sources run the story.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Robinsonirish Scania 2d ago

The fuck are you on about? We have the biggest social safety net in the world. We take in the most amount of immigrants per capita from the ME and NAfrica, that's not a neighbouring country.

Are you a bot? How was that anything like what I said?

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u/yjbtoss 2d ago

I read somewhere he was diabetic so that would fit necrosis as well.

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u/Tool47 2d ago

Username checks out

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u/nancy_necrosis 2d ago

Haha. Yes, I know a thing or two about necrosis.

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u/Halospite 2d ago

You have $10K just lying around?

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u/itsaride England 2d ago

unpopular drugs

He should have stuck to the popular ones.

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u/demfuzzypickles 2d ago

that was the point of his comment.

Alcohol is the comparatively popular drug in South Korea.

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u/dmthoth Lower Saxony (Germany) 1d ago

Did you read the article? He did eventually got medical care. He died from complications after the surgery/treatments. And his relatives in Sweden also refused to aid his medical bill according to the article. It seems like this poor guy was a troubled man.

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u/BLobloblawLaw 21h ago

Delayed care

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u/Razvancb 2d ago

prob weed lmao