Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Two senior medical doctors in two cities just south of Seoul were indicted Monday on narcotics charges, prosecutors said. The two doctors are alleged to have performed surgical operations while under the influence of narcotics more than a hundred times.
Yonhap News (March 7, 2005)
http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/Engnews/20050307/300100000020050307180239E8.html

[Wangja]

Occupational hazard (for the patients) - you never heard of the happy gas?

[itaewonguy]

they didnt say what kinds of drugs they were on.. could of been anything,.
could have been pain killers, or anything..

[Real Reality]

The prosecution yesterday arrested owners of two hospitals in Gyeonggi Province on charges of illegally using prescription drugs. One of the two, identified by his family name Lee, was accused in July 2003 of examining patients and performing several operations while on drugs.

The prosecution also indicted another 56 doctors and pharmaceutical company owners on charges of not properly dealing with drugs.
The Korea Herald (March 7, 2005)
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/03/08/200503080004.asp

[Real Reality]

Hospital Chiefs Busted for Drug Abuse
Prosecutors in Suwon have arrested two hospital heads for habitual use of controlled painkillers and tranquilizers. The pair were a 51-year-old who ran a hospital in Suwon identified as A, and a 43-year-old from a hospital in Gunpo identified as B. An orthopedist, A told nurses at his hospital to administer to him the painkiller pethidine hydrochloride and the tranquilizer diazepam on 96 occasions between May 2002 and September 2004, prosecutors said. The doctor performed 120 surgical operations on the days he took the drugs, including a July 2003 operation on a day when he took them three times.

B, a surgeon, is suspected of taking diazepam and Lorazepam 26 times between May 2003 and September 2004, again with the help of nurses at his hospital.

The drugs can cause sleepiness, slowed respiration and possible convulsions if taken habitually in the case of pethidine hydrochloride and hallucinations in the case of diazepam and lorazepam.

Prosecutors said the two doctors filled out false prescriptions for patients to conceal their abuse of the substances.
Chosun Ilbo (March 7, 2005)
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200503/200503070038.html