Two high school baseball players who were seriously injured during a game were left lying on the field for 20 minutes. There were no medical personnel on the field, which is essential for player safety.
One of the injured players was so badly injured that his life was practically over, and the lack of proper medical attention is likely to cause even more controversy in the future.
Yesterday (Nov. 11), a weekend league game between Jinyoungo and Bucheon took place at Tancheon Baseball Stadium in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. The accident occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning while Jinyoungo was playing defense. Jinyoungo’s left fielder and shortstop collided while trying to catch a fly ball in the outfield.
Immediately after the accident, an ambulance entered the stadium, but one of the players was seriously injured, and since there was only an ambulance driver on the field, he was unable to receive proper medical attention and was delayed in being transported to the hospital.
In a phone conversation with KBS, Jin Young-go baseball coach Lim Sun-dong (a former Hyundai Unicorns pitcher) said, “The hospital wouldn’t accept the driver because there was no one (paramedic) to ride with him in the ambulance. They said I had to call a 119 ambulance,” he said.
According to the official scoreboard, the game was stopped for 37 minutes due to injuries. The injured players had to endure the pain and wait for an ambulance to arrive without receiving proper medical attention.
One of the injured players, Jin Young-go A, suffered seven fractures in his face, including his eye socket and jaw, and five broken teeth. According to the hospital’s diagnosis, he needs to undergo a surgery to insert artificial bones, which will take about two years to fully recover, effectively ending his life.
With no medical staff on hand, the ambulance driver was only able to provide initial care, such as wiping the blood from his face, while Mr. B, the baseball coach, who is also a physical education teacher at Jinyeong High School, helped lift his student’s head.
In an interview with KBS, Mr. B said, “At first, the injured student was lying on the ground and didn’t move. I was surprised and ran over to him, and he was twitching a bit. He wasn’t unconscious, but he was having trouble breathing because his mouth was bleeding, and we warned him not to swallow because the broken tooth was still in his mouth,” Mr. B said.
In total, five teeth were broken, two of which were found on the ground by the injured player’s father, and the remaining three are still missing.
According to the Sports Event Safety Management Manual distributed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in March, high school baseball weekend league stadiums must be staffed with a doctor, a nurse, and a paramedic. The Korea Baseball Softball Association also provides 400,000 won per day for ambulances and nurses to run weekend leagues.
In fact, a player broke his nose during a weekend league game between Convention Go and Jangchung Go at a baseball park in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on April 4, and was transferred to a pre-designated Kookmin University Hospital after being treated on-site by paramedics. 토토사이트
The high school baseball weekend league is co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Education, and the Korea Baseball Softball Association, and is an important competition for student athletes to advance to the professional ranks.
Kim Yong-gyun, secretary general of the Korea Baseball Softball Association, said, “The association can’t check all the games, and we confirmed that there were no paramedics on site. We will report to the president of the association and conduct a full investigation if necessary,” he told KBS.