Human Leg Found at Recycling Center Traced to Nursing Home; Questions Raised Over Amputation Procedure

[Anchor]

A human leg discovered at a recycling center in Incheon last week has been identified as belonging to a patient at a local nursing home. While police have confirmed that the incident is not related to a violent crime such as murder, they are investigating how the amputation was performed and whether any laws were violated, particularly as the facility lacks a dedicated operating room.

Reporter Bae Seong-jae has the story.

[Reporter]

The partial human leg found at a recycling center in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, on the afternoon of June 10 was confirmed to belong to a patient in her 80s hospitalized at a nursing home located about 25km away.

The nursing home voluntarily reported the incident, and police have received a verbal opinion from the National Forensic Service confirming that the DNA matches.

The hospital reportedly stated to the police, "We amputated the necrotic leg of an elderly female patient and placed it in a designated medical waste container, but a cleaning staff member mistakenly disposed of it incorrectly."

Based on earlier forensic findings that the body part belonged to a female between 161 and 165 cm tall, police had formed an investigation team of about 100 officers and spent a week tracking the source.

In particular, as the foot size of approximately 210mm raised the possibility that the victim could be a young student, the Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education and local schools even went through the commotion of searching for long-term absent students.

Fortunately, it has been confirmed that this was not a violent crime, but police have launched an investigation into the circumstances under which the hospital amputated and disposed of the patient's leg.

Questions are being raised as to how the amputation was performed, given that the nursing home does not have a separate operating room.

[Hospital Representative: We do not have an operating room. We are aware of that, but we cannot provide any further details beyond that.]

Separate from the police investigation, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has also begun verifying the facts to determine if there were any violations of the Medical Service Act.

Reported by Lee Sang-hak | Video by Jo Mu-hwan | Graphics by Lee Jong-jung
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.