Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Do Electric Fans Cause Death?
Korean news sources regularly report on cases of "fan death" every summer and this year several incidents have reportedly occurred. Fan death accidents on news reports are categorized into two areas, one with regard to fire from a fan overheating and the other, suffocation or hypothermia.

Many Korean medical professionals accept the explanation of suffocation or hypothermia caused by a fan.
By Kang Shin-who, Korea Times (September 10, 2006)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200609/kt2006091017514911980.htm

[coolsage]

RR, you must have too much time on your hands. I thought that this subject had been beaten to death a long time ago. Nonetheless, a colleague of mine, a Kyopo, a PhD candidate, still believes this hooey. Koreans tend to be a gullible poeple.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

One of my American co-instructors did indeed become very sick after having his windows closed and the fan on one summer night, but this I think was because the fan was blowing around chemicals from the cheap glue in the wallpaper all night. I think this could under some circumstances cause a fatality, but in most cases it's either an electrical fire or insurance people / relatives not wanting to say that a suicide has occurred.

The idea that fan death is actually suffocation or hypothermia seems to be perversely held here. It bothers me that some medical professionals believe this gorp, but it doesn't surprise me that the Korea Times would run an article endorsing it. When I read things like this, I wonder why the government doesn't try to root out unqualified doctors the way it tries to find unqualified ESL teachers.

Ken:>

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[gang ah jee]

From http:///www.intuitor.com

[djsmnc]

RE: Do Electric Fans Cause Death?

Well, considering the fact that fans with metal blades have the capacity of slicing off fingers, I imagine that it is possible that an unfortunate victim, (or dimwitted ignoramus for that matter) of such an occurrance MAY slowly bleed to death. Other complications, such as shock or increased heart rate could cause cardiac arrest or hyperventilation in some, particularly in individuals with a history of heart problems or an innate fear of blood.

In the case of an industrial fan, perhaps placing one's neck into a fan at a high speed, as in a suicide attempt, may in fact slice one's jugular vein or other vital areas of the head and neck area.

[Hollywoodaction]

This has been discussed at great lenghts in other threads. We all came to the concensus that fan death is a silly idea, as sign that Korean doctors should stop being so darned superstitious (I wonder how many of the doctors who believe in fan death practice Oriental Medicine ("Look, I'm a doctor because I wear a lab coat"). Americans from the deep South, who have ceiling fans and air conditioners going all year round, raised the point that if fan deaths were true, thousands of Americans would die each year from it. Canadians refuted the legend by pointing out that although it's not uncommon for drunks to pass out in snow banks in temperatures minus 30C, very few of them die.

[Hollywoodaction]

[mindmetoo]

It's very disturbing a Korean doctor doesn't understand a basic system in the human body the regulates temperature.

If the vacuum theory held true, a simple autopsy would turn up the cause of death due to asphyxiation. Can't this doctor do a simple search of the medical literature?

If he is typical of Korean doctors, the Korean medical system is a joke.

[charlieDD]

The medical profession here mirrors the general population's belief in these kinds of things - - despite what their education would tell them.

A friend of mine, an American, spent six days in a hospital with a fever of around 40 C (about 102 F, I guestimate). The doctors would do nothing to reduce the brain boiling temperature; why? "The fever will burn up the virus." Yes, . . that is the body's intent; make the body inhospitable to the invading virus, by raising the body temp to one in which the virus can't survive. But, uh . . . we do have other ways of killing viruses these days, like . . uh . . antibiotics - - - which they would not give him. They also gave him absolutely nothing to eat in this period and he lost five kilos in that week, a lot for the slim, 60kg guy he is. It was the "burn and starve" approach.

Get this: The doctor was U.S. educated and considered the hospital's best virologist (spell?), even one of the best in the country.

On another case: A Chinese student from Hong Kong and another Chinese from Malaysia: roommates at Yonsei's language school. They're both sick so they go together to Severance Hospital to see a doctor. He checks the Hong Kong one, who was not as sick as the Malaysian one. Tells him to take some medicine, etc. Then, when it comes to the Malaysina one's turn, he says "He's your roommate? Oh, well then, the same thing: take this . . . . " - - and doesn't even examine him! The Hong Konger: was fine the next day. The Malaysian got very ill and his Korean family sponsor (a wealthy family that did business with the Malaysian kid's father, and had a vested interest in seeing him not die on their watch!) took him to their home and had a private nurse care for him for several days.

[4 months left]

I also think fan death is used as a cover when someone commits suicide.

[mindmetoo]

[mindmetoo]

[VanIslander]