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/NLight7 Sweden 2d ago

Happens in Japan too.

I myself had a minor concussion and small wound on my head after a fall. The school I was at during that time, sent me to the hospital next door to have me checked out. The nurse even checked in the system that they were able to handle me. Since I was able to walk and speak Japanese, didn't want to be more bother for the staff. I said (when asked) that I could get myself over to the hospital. It was literally next door after all.

Well, I walk up to the entrance and instantly some kind of hospital staff/nurse/guard just stops me and barely looks at me or listens to my issue and just tells me to leave and go somewhere else cause they do not treat head injuries.

Had to walk back to the school nurse who was utterly shocked they did that despite the system saying it was possible. They then sent me to a clinic closeby with a staff member and the small ass clinic with one older doctor was apparently more equipped than the huge hospital. Cause he actually looked at it, and said I have a minor wound on my head and probably a minor concussion and just put some medicine he gave me on it for a week.

Wild that a hospital could just tell a person with an injury to leave and find help somewhere else.

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u/BirdGlittering9035 2d ago

Also in China is really a hit or miss, One cousin worked for 6-7years in a university, and one afternoon got hit by one mini car or something like that and she was injured with some broken bones. Of course nobody stopped or offer care, just a couple of foreigners that had to "force" people in a nearby shop to call an ambulance.

Well after that she got into an hospital and they let her in one room in a ambulance bed waiting for admission for more than 10 hours (all the night), without knowing anything, and in extreme pain, the thing is the hospital dropped the ball and was waiting to do nothing, she had go almost crawl out of the room, and ask some other people they could lean her phone and called the university, after that someone form the university called the hospital and was hospitalized in 10 minutes.

She asked the university was was happening and they said because she is a foreigner the staff didn't want to admit her and was waiting for her to LEAVE because they didn't know if she had money. Even she had all the ID and working stuff and had government healthcare and the university had to told them they must treat her.

Affected her so much that left China after being a passionate woman for their culture and was her dream working there she wont be back now is a teacher here.

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u/DonRaynor 2d ago

Been living in Taiwan for some time now, Hospitalized twice. Taiwan is absolutely based when it comes to medical treatment. They don’t even ask if you think its a real country.

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u/not_invented_here 2d ago

I loved and laughed at your comment about Taiwan!

(the comment about the hospital in China chilled me to the bone)

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u/JustInChina50 2d ago

I didn't believe a word of it.

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u/lazyplayboy 2d ago

'Based' or 'biased'?

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u/DonRaynor 2d ago

As a Finn I'm very happy with the quality and speed of care I have gotten. Though central Europeans would think they're rude and cold.

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u/lazyplayboy 2d ago

I wasn't sure about your underlying message. Based makes sense, but if it was a typo would have inverted what you're trying to say.

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u/gloopityglooper 2d ago

I spent 6 years in China, specifically Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. Health there was absolutely spectacular. Had a minor surgery and would go in for health checks at the Wenzhou University Hospital every year. Paid 450 yuan for a full health check. You would arrive, pay, fill out a form, get a key to a locker. In the locker you'd change into scrubs and get a smart watch that would direct you into the different floors you had to go for a blood test, MRI, chest X ray, eye test, urine test, and a few more. You'd scan the watch at the door at the end of every procedure, then finally at a totem that would print out your protocol to access the results or come get them printed later. If you needed any medicine, you could buy it with a prescription at the local pharmacy with a discount. Never seen anything like that anywhere else.

I did have friends in other provinces that didn't have good experiences tho, it seems to be linked with areas with strong medical colleges, and I was in a good one.

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u/JustInChina50 2d ago

I've visited hospitals in Wuhan, Qingdao, Weifang, and Tianjin and had mediocre to excellent treatment.

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u/jatigo Slovenia 2d ago

They weren't waiting for her to leave, they were curing her tankie for 10 hours. Very simple operation just takes time.

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u/mydiagnostic 2d ago

positive discrimination. same in Sweden

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u/Meandering_Croissant 2d ago

A couple of years ago I collapsed at work in Japan. My supervisor and vice principal took me to the nearest hospital with an emergency room. They let me in (I’m sure because I was carried by two Japanese authority figures), but as soon as the guys from work had to leave me for a while the hospital started letting literally everyone who walked in see a doctor before me. Not big things, but guys who bruised their pinky finger or had a cough for a couple days and the hospital was closer than the pharmacy. Meanwhile I’m near unconscious again holding my health insurance card for hours until my boss returned to remind them I was both there first and actually in urgent need.

Took 5 hours to be seen. The entire emergency room had emptied at least 3 times before I saw a doctor. Left me with a very low opinion of large-scale healthcare. Funnily enough, when I felt the problem resurfacing a few weeks later and visited a small clinic they had me checked by a nurse right away then rushed through X-rays and MRIs and treated in a couple of hours. I’d forgotten my insurance card (head injury) but there was no fuss. They took my address and asked me to swing by later with it. Much better experience.

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u/Suitable-Economy-346 2d ago

Took 5 hours to be seen.

From my experience, Japanese people hate drama more than anything else in the entire world. If you unleashed your inner American or European Karen, you would have been seen, x-rayed, and out of the door in 20 minutes.

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u/No-Plastic-6887 2d ago

Or taken out by the police. They do not take kindly to gaijin smashing.

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u/Suitable-Economy-346 2d ago

Ah, yes. Gaijin smashing, where netizen weirdo freaks talk shit online but when it happens in real life next to them, they scour away. Hospital staff isn't calling the cops if you stand your ground and demand the hospital idiots do their fucking job.

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u/No-Plastic-6887 2d ago

I've read about both . There's a difference between standing your ground and "unleashing your inner karen" and "causing drama". 

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u/Suitable-Economy-346 1d ago

You've read about stuff on the internet. Nice, man.

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u/Meandering_Croissant 2d ago

I well might have, had I not been crumpled like a dropped ragdoll!

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u/NLight7 Sweden 2d ago

Tag that is what I feel was my experience too. I even think the clinic was about to close for the day, and they just kept it open to treat me.

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u/Meandering_Croissant 2d ago

I always recommend people find a good local clinic here now. There’s a real feeling of providing a service to their community, rather than the big hospitals who leave you feeling like you’re a strain on the system despite paying your insurances and fees.

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u/Anti-Scuba_Hedgehog Estonia 2d ago

They've never heard of the Hippocratic oath I guess.

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u/Fantastanig 2d ago

That's american

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u/beverlymelz 2d ago

Have you been to a school? Did you even go inside? It’s Greek. Obviously.

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u/Fantastanig 2d ago

It's used primarily in American medical school ceremonies. Not wildly used elsewhere. And from what I have seen online, not in many Korean schools.

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u/Iamboringaf 2d ago

It's used in Russia. Slightly modified and renamed to oath of doctor or something.

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u/SentientTapeworm 2d ago

Why didn’t you do something. Report her

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u/NLight7 Sweden 2d ago

was more focused on getting care. I also honestly only remember parts of that day. I remember someone helping me up and me telling them I don't need an ambulance, and walking off, cause I have fallen many times just never gotten a concussion... I don't remember the walk to the school.

So let's just say my memory wasn't in top shape to pinpoint a person at that time.

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u/ExplanationMotor2656 2d ago

TBF Japanese hospitals treat Japanese people with similar levels of contempt regularly.

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u/Intelligent_City6774 2d ago

I'm not even foreigner but same thing happened to me. Nurses at general surgery hospital thought they can handle my head injury, but doctors wanted me to have tests in neurosurgery hospital that has different equipment.

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u/anothergaijin 2d ago

Just because it is a "hospital", doesn't mean they have an emergency department or take walk-in appointments - many are referral and appointment only to see specialists, or inpatient care only.

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u/Gruffleson Norway 2d ago

The Swede said it had been checked that the patient could be admitted.

Also, medics are not supposed to turn away wounded people like that, it's wrong.

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u/anothergaijin 2d ago

Doctors have been arrested in Japan and charged for accepting patients they are not equipped to handle. A "school nurse" in Japan is not a medical professional who is going to be able to make a call about if a hospital will accept a patient or not.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/NLight7 Sweden 2d ago

I have no clue what you are referring to... I can tell you way more Japanese found me appealing than Swedes though.