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On January 30, 2023, a 71-year-old caregiver identified as A was solely looking after 16 elderly residents at a nursing home in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon.
This occurred while a fellow daytime caregiver had stepped away for lunch.
Caregiver A had just brought back an 83-year-old resident with dementia, B, who was wandering near the balcony of an empty room after crossing a skybridge.
On the second floor of this nursing home, the empty rooms and the residents' living spaces were connected by a skybridge.
The iron doors on both sides of the skybridge were unlocked.
Shortly afterward, while A went to change another resident's diaper, resident B crossed over to the empty room again in just two minutes.
Resident B went out to the balcony, grabbed the railing, stepped on a ledge 59 cm high from the floor, and fell to the first floor.
Although immediately transferred to a hospital, resident B ultimately passed away later that afternoon from multiple organ failure.
It was only five days after entering the nursing home.
From the time of admission, resident B suffered severe symptoms of delirium caused by dementia, characterized by a sudden and temporary state of mental confusion.
An observation log for B noted, "Severe delusions and wandering, believes the nursing home is a foreign country. Careful observation is required."
Three days and one day prior to the accident, resident B had also caused a disturbance in front of the nursing home elevator, shouting, "I need to go to Russia with my son" and "I need to go see my children."
Prosecutors indicted both caregiver A and the nursing home representative, C (66), on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, claiming they neglected safety management despite knowing resident B's condition and the risk of a fall.
However, according to the legal community today (August 5), Judge Yoo Seung-won of Criminal Division 6 at the Incheon District Court recently acquitted both defendants.
Judge Yoo stated, "The balcony railing where the accident occurred is 131.5 cm high from the floor to the iron bar, which is high enough to prevent not only elderly dementia patients but also average adults from falling." The judge added, "It would have been difficult for C to anticipate that B would step on the ledge and climb over the iron bar."
Furthermore, the judge ruled that the nursing home was not obligated to take safety measures anticipating every unusual scenario.
"A nursing home is merely an elderly welfare facility, not a prison or detention facility intended to prevent residents from escaping," the judge premised.
"Even looking at the situation prior to the accident, it is difficult to see that it could have been foreseen that B would cross the second-floor balcony railing and fall to the first floor," the judge explained, adding, "The fact that they could not foresee and avert a death caused by B's proactive action cannot be blamed on a breach of the defendants' duty of care," thereby stating the reasons for the acquittal.
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