[Anchor]
A caregiver in her 60s was sentenced to four years in prison by a lower court last month for assaulting an elderly patient with dementia in his 80s, resulting in his death. We have obtained the CCTV footage from the time of the incident.
Reporter Kim Minjun has the story.
[Reporter]
This is CCTV footage from inside a multi-bed room at a nursing home in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, taken last November.
When the caregiver in her 60s, identified as A, holds a razor to the patient's face, the elderly man appears startled and pushes it away.
Caregiver A then grabs him by the back of the neck, presses him down, and kicks him to the floor with her knee.
She takes off the slipper she is wearing, strikes him in the face with it, and shoves him onto the bed.
She also twists his arm and strikes his cheek hard.
The assault on the elderly patient with dementia continued for nearly four minutes until another caregiver intervened.
The nursing home claims that after noticing the victim acting differently, they checked the CCTV footage, discovered the assault, and immediately transported the patient to a university hospital.
[Grandson of the victim: (I heard that) because he was in the bathroom for too long, they went in to check on him two or three times, and he was sweating so profusely that one of the caregivers had to help him out.]
The hospital diagnosed him with a "traumatic subdural hematoma," a condition where blood pools under the membrane covering the brain due to external impact.
The victim passed away the following day. The incident occurred when the caregiver offered to shave him just one day before a scheduled family visit.
The prosecution had requested an eight-year prison sentence for A on charges of assault resulting in death, and the lower court sentenced her to four years last month.
A initially denied the charges, claiming she was only pretending to threaten him. After the CCTV footage was released, she changed her story to claim that she was acting in self-defense, but the court did not accept this argument.
[Grandson of the victim: Even if she had apologized and begged for forgiveness, I would still be furious. But because she acted that way (denying the charges), I honestly felt uncontrollable anger.]
The lower court pointed out, "Although the patient was resisting, the caregiver's actions appeared to be an 'outburst of anger that went beyond defensive measures,' and there were no issues threatening the patient's life prior to the assault."
Reported by Kim Minjun | Video by Kim Nam-seong | Video Editing by Choi Jin-hwa | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.