Volunteer misidentifies amputated leg as cast

A human leg discovered at a recycling facility in Incheon on June 10 was traced to a patient at a long-term care hospital. Investigators found that a hospital volunteer had mistakenly discarded the amputated limb after believing it was a medical cast. The case also raised questions after it emerged that the amputation had been carried out at a hospital without an operating room. Hospital officials said the patient’s leg had become severely gangrenous and was removed using scissors.

The Incheon Yeonsu Police Station said at a media briefing on June 18 that a male volunteer in his 60s was cleaning trash bins on June 9 when he spotted the bandage-wrapped leg inside a container designated for medical waste. Mistaking it for a plaster cast, he placed it in a recycling bag and disposed of it. Surveillance footage captured the volunteer removing the limb from a medical waste bag and placing it with recyclable waste. Police said he later told investigators that he believed it was a cast.

According to police, the hospital amputated about 41 centimeters of the left leg of an 89-year-old woman on June 8 after the tissue became necrotic. The severed limb was wrapped in bandages and placed in a medical waste bag for disposal. Because the hospital does not have an operating room, police have launched a preliminary inquiry into whether the procedure and the subsequent handling of the limb violated the Medical Service Act or the Waste Control Act.


인천=공승배 ksb@donga.com