A patient recently died at a city hospital in Hamhung after receiving a hospital-made IV drip. The incident has further eroded people’s trust in medical institutions and their homemade medical supplies.
A Daily NK source in South Hamgyong province said recently that a woman in her 40s “visited the city hospital in Hamhung on May 7 with low blood pressure symptoms but died after receiving an IV drip prescribed by a hospital doctor.”
According to the source, the woman — identified as Kim — regularly suffered from headaches and nausea due to low blood pressure. Whenever symptoms appeared, she would buy 5% glucose and amino acid drips from a private doctor who illegally sold medical supplies and treated patients at home instead of working at a hospital despite having graduated from medical school.
Many North Koreans must rely on private doctors practicing medicine illegally rather than official hospitals.
On the day she died, Kim went to see the private doctor as usual, but no one was home. She was told he would return in a few days. With severe symptoms, she ended up going to the hospital — something she normally avoided. While receiving a hospital-made IV drip, she had a severe reaction, went into convulsions, and died.
“In North Korea, patients with low blood pressure routinely get glucose drips, and even hospital doctors prescribe them as standard treatment,” the source said. “However, the hospital appears to have used a drip it made itself without checking its safety, which caused the accident.”
“Her family and neighbors were shocked that she went to a hospital and died not from surgery but from an IV drip,” the source said. “Because hospitals have promoted their homemade medical supplies as effective and safe, they were even more stunned.”
The dark side of “self-reliance”
News of Kim’s death spread quickly around town. “She basically went to the hospital to die,” people said. “This is what self-reliance gets you.”
Hamhung’s city hospital has long produced its own basic medical supplies — including IV drips — and traditional Korean medicine following a government order for hospitals and medical institutions to manufacture pharmaceuticals themselves to address shortages. However, with this latest incident, public distrust of hospitals and homemade medical supplies is growing, the source said.
People complain that they can’t trust hospitals’ homemade medicines “when even the ones made by the government don’t work,” that they won’t go to hospitals given the current situation, and that medical supplies “must have spoiled because hospitals don’t store and maintain them properly.”
“Public health officials from Pyongyang have started a thorough inspection of the city hospital,” the source said. “Inspectors are asking about everything, including the hospital’s pharmaceutical manufacturing process, doctors’ prescriptions, and the hospital’s response on the day Kim died.”
Hamhung residents believe the hospital’s director or party secretary will be fired to take responsibility for the incident once the inspection is finished. However, people say nothing will really change even if new people replace them.
“Many people complain that assigning blame is pointless now since the person is already dead,” the source said. “The government is also largely responsible for ordering hospitals to make their own supplies without determining if they were capable, and people are frustrated seeing the hospital take all the blame.”
