Korean Teen Dies After Being Turned Away From Hospital for a Negative COVID-19 Test Result
It was recently reported that a young teenager of age 17, who was a student in Daegu, passed away after making contact with a person infected with COVID-19.
In an interview with Jungang Ilbo, Mr. A‘s parents revealed their son’s whereabouts before he began showing symptoms.
According to Mr. A’s parents, their son came down with a fever after he lined up in front of a pharmacy in order to purchase masks on March 10.
Mr. A lined up for an hour starting at 5 in the morning, and later that night, he informed his parents that he felt ill.
His parents added that their son didn’t go anywhere for 3 weeks after that besides visiting the academy that their parents own for a short moment.
Although they took their son to the hospital as soon as he got a fever, the hospital sent Mr. A back home with medicine because the test results came back negative.
When the fever wouldn’t go down, the mother took his son to the hospital again, but the hospital claimed that there was nothing they could do.
I resent Gyeongsan Joongang Hospital for sending my son back home with a 41.5-degree fever just because he didn’t test positive for COVID-19.
– Mr. A’s Parents
Only after their son’s passing due to pneumonia symptoms, did the health authorities confirm that the cause of Mr. A’s death was indeed direct or indirect contact with another person infected with COVID-19.
Mr. A’s parents continue to wonder if their son would still be alive if the hospital acted quickly without depending so heavily on the test results.