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Behind the rampant "ghost doctor": revealing the chaos of the Korean plastic surgery industry

author:Cover News

Cover News Reporter Yan Wenwen

On March 22, the Chinese Embassy in South Korea issued a reminder that Chinese citizens coming to South Korea for cosmetic surgery should not blindly follow advertisements, carefully choose intermediaries, formal medical institutions and professional plastic surgeons, and rationally defend their rights through legitimate channels in the event of medical disputes.

Since 2009, South Korea has become the country with the most cosmetic surgery per capita in the world, with 20 out of every 1,000 people. Moreover, South Korea also ranks fifth in the world in the proportion of people engaged in plastic surgery professionals.

It stands to reason that such a mature industry will cause chaos, so much so that the Chinese Embassy in South Korea has to issue a special reminder? In this regard, the cover news reporter investigated.

Behind the rampant "ghost doctor": revealing the chaos of the Korean plastic surgery industry

There are many plastic surgery hospitals in Seoul

Bringing $200 million in foreign exchange to South Korea a year The embassy issued a reminder

The Chinese Embassy in South Korea issued an article saying that in recent years, many foreigners have come to South Korea for cosmetic surgery, and some people have been involved in medical disputes, and surgery failures and even fatalities have occurred from time to time. Therefore, the embassy reminds Chinese citizens who come to Korea for beauty and plastic surgery to avoid blindly following advertising. Don't be fooled by hyperbole and discounts. Comprehensively understand the risks and possible complications and sequelae of surgery before surgery, and make objective and rational choices.

Also, choose intermediaries carefully. If you choose an intermediary, you must carefully confirm its qualifications, clarify the rights and obligations of both parties when signing the agreement, and beware of illegal intermediaries. When choosing a medical institution and a professional plastic surgeon, you can log on to the website of the Korean Society of Plastic Surgeons in advance to confirm whether the relevant hospital is registered and whether the doctor is professional, and learn about the reputation of the hospital and the doctor's past practice through multiple channels, so as to prevent the trap of "black workshop" and "ghost surgery". It is understood that "ghost surgery" refers to an operation in which a professional doctor who is determined by a patient before surgery does not go to the operating table, but is actually performed by another doctor who has never been in contact with the patient. Most of these "ghost" doctors are novice doctors, and the probability of medical accidents is high.

Behind the rampant "ghost doctor": revealing the chaos of the Korean plastic surgery industry

Operating room at Korea Plastic Surgery Hospital

It should be noted that a formal contract should be signed before surgery, and the contract clearly stipulates the surgeon, the surgical effect, the liability for breach of contract and the dispute resolution method. Request medical records in a timely manner, pay through formal and transparent channels, and issue official invoices. Keep contracts, medical records, payment vouchers, before-and-after photos and other materials properly after surgery. Once a medical dispute occurs, it is necessary to rationally protect rights through legitimate channels. Rights protection channels include negotiation with the hospital, arbitration through the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Institute, and legal litigation.

The Chinese Embassy in South Korea also reminds that if there is a major change in appearance after surgery, or if it is still in the postoperative recovery stage, you should bring the surgical certificate when you leave China to avoid affecting check-in or subsequent immigration procedures.

The cosmetic surgery industry is very developed in South Korea and has grown into a more than 10 billion dollar industry, with about 500 large and small cosmetic surgery clinics in an area of less than 40 square kilometers in Seoul's Gangnam district. In addition to its own citizens, South Korea's cosmetic surgery industry attracts customers from neighboring countries such as China and Russia. The reporter looked through the official websites of many Korean plastic surgery hospitals, in addition to the introduction in Korean and English, the official websites of many hospitals also have Chinese and Russian versions. Foreign cosmetic surgeons bring in at least $200 million in foreign exchange for South Korea every year.

Unlicensed people as stand-ins "Ghost doctors" are rampant

The Chinese Embassy in South Korea issued such a solemn notice, which is actually related to the frequent accidents in the Korean plastic surgery industry and the "ghost doctor".

As early as 2015, it was exposed that a Chinese woman went to South Korea for plastic surgery brain death, and a Wuhan girl went to South Korea for plastic surgery cardiac arrest. And in 2016, Kwon Dae-hee, a 24-year-old college student, had cheekbone surgery at a plastic surgery hospital in Seoul, South Korea, but never got off the operating table. This incident became the fuse to uncover the secrets of the Korean plastic surgery world, and the group of "ghost doctors" surfaced.

Behind the rampant "ghost doctor": revealing the chaos of the Korean plastic surgery industry

South Korean college student Kwon Dae-hee encountered a ghost doctor and unfortunately died

According to the content exposed by the media, Kwon Dae-hee's operation was initially started by a plastic surgeon, but halfway through the operation, a general doctor without a plastic surgery license took over the operation, and finally Kwon Dae-hee was sent to the hospital due to excessive bleeding and died 7 weeks later. The practice of hiring a doctor to perform the procedure, but having another doctor actually perform the procedure after the patient is under anesthesia is known as ghost surgery. Compared with experienced doctors, "ghost doctors" are more likely to cause medical accidents.

In an in-depth CNN investigation in 2021, a doctor interviewed said he was often asked to operate on the attending physician and described how substitutes waited in the basement until they were asked to operate on the patient. He said the men were not listed as employees on the clinic's website, and that the procedures described by the clinic were performed by respected surgeons.

In fact, the Korean surgical cosmetic community has long recognized the danger, which was launched in 2015 by a group of plastic surgeons to tighten regulations and install closed-circuit televisions in clinics to identify who is performing the surgery. In 2018, South Korea enacted a law that increased penalties for doctors who instruct ghost surgeries. But a 2018 paper published in the medical journal Annals of Surgical Treatment and Research found that the practice remains "rampant."

Nearly one million surgeries are performed every year, and medical accidents occur frequently

The potential danger is not limited to the problem of "ghost doctors", but also other deaths caused by medical negligence. The New Yorker wrote in 2014 that a South Korean lawmaker complained to parliament that 77 percent of plastic surgery clinics were not equipped with mandatory defibrillators or ventilators.

In January 2020, Hong Kong, China, Celebrity Robele, died during plastic surgery at a clinic in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It was not until October of that year that the police reported that Robert's death was a serious medical negligence. The police investigation found that propofol, a controlled drug used as a sedative during surgery, caused adverse reactions, and there was no anesthesiologist at the scene, only a surgeon responsible for anesthesia. And the clinic did not test Robert for adverse reactions to verify whether she was allergic to the anesthetic used in the procedure.

In January, a Chinese woman in her 20s died after being admitted to the hospital after developing ventricular quiescence during anesthesia during surgery.

Although fatalities and medical malpractice are heard from time to time, this has not hindered the development of the Korean plastic surgery industry. As early as 2009, South Korea has the largest number of plastic surgeries per capita. More than 980,000 surgeries were recorded in 2014 alone, equivalent to 20 out of every 1,000 people, compared with 13 per 1,000 in the United States, another major plastic surgery country, during the same period.

Since the industry is so developed, why are there such medical malpractices and "ghost doctors"? This is likely to be related to the rapidly increasing traffic and the number of licensed doctors. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, South Korea has the fifth largest number of plastic surgeons in the world, with more than 2,500 in 2019. That's less than the 6,900 in the U.S. and more than 6,000 in Brazil.

In Korea, if you want to become a professional plastic surgeon, you need to undergo 4 years of basic training at the training hospital and then obtain the certification required by the college for academic and medical activities. After obtaining certification, students are also required to pass two professional exams. Becoming a specialist requires a certain number of papers and at least one conference presentation, 240 hospitalizations and 2,000 outpatient nursing experiences, and at least 170 basic surgeries during the training period, a number that is difficult to achieve.

Based on the volume of 980,000 surgeries per year, the average doctor performs 392 surgeries per year. Such a large amount of surgery led to the birth of a black industry such as "ghost doctor".

Training doctors is one of the Korean plastic surgery industries, mostly short-term gold plating projects

A practitioner in the medical cosmetology industry, Miss A, told the cover news reporter that there are still some irregular phenomena in the current market of the medical cosmetology industry, and there are many training institutions. She had heard of industry insiders coming to Korea for training, and after returning to China, she would operate for customers under the title of returning from Korea. "Because the training of plastic surgeons is also an industry in South Korea, some training institutions will give students some opportunities to practice, and then the trainees will return to China after packaging, and they will pick up customers in the name of a student of a certain doctor."

Ms. A said that some practitioners even dare to train for a short period of time and give some simple injections to customers: "The shortest crash course is 28 days, and three months is considered an advanced class." I have seen a person who is the fastest to get started, and after three days of learning, he dares to give people botulinum. She reminded consumers to choose a regular hospital, "Whether it is domestic or foreign, in fact, there is a chaotic phenomenon, some studios will have a registered phenomenon, the operator does not have a doctor's license, which may cause medical disputes." ”

Behind the rampant "ghost doctor": revealing the chaos of the Korean plastic surgery industry

From 2023, Korean plastic surgery hospitals must keep videos of surgical procedures for at least 30 days

In September this year, the South Korean Medical Care Act forced hospitals and clinics to retain video recordings of patients' surgical procedures for 30 days. But a recent leak of patient videos has cast a shadow over whether the bill can be implemented as scheduled. In early February, an illegal website began leaking footage of several well-known singers and actors going to plastic surgery hospitals for consultations, as well as videos of naked physical examinations. According to South Korean police, the plastic surgery hospital has confirmed that the videos were filmed by surveillance installed in the consultation room. How to balance privacy and security has become a problem that the Korean plastic surgery industry must deal with.

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