by Alex Jensen
SEOUL
The son and heir of South Korea’s wealthiest man -- ailing Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee -- apologized Tuesday for Samsung Medical Center’s mistakes during the country’s MERS virus outbreak.
While the disease has claimed 27 lives since last month, close to half of the 175 local infections of the flu-like illness are directly linked to the prestigious Seoul facility.
“I, myself, feel devastated and fully responsible,” said vice chairman Jay Y. Lee as he bowed on national television.
Best known globally for electronics products, Samsung’s hospital in the capital’s Gangnam area draws patients from around the country -- it was even the first local hospital to diagnose MERS, in a man who had returned from the Middle East.
But the facility came under criticism as it emerged that another infected man exposed around 900 people to the virus when he spent two nights coughing in Samsung’s emergency room before his condition was recognized.
Lee Kun-hee, 73, has been kept safe despite spending the entire outbreak in Samsung Medical Center following a heart attack last year.
“My father's been lying at this hospital for over a year. I understand the distress and anxiety that the patients and their families have suffered,” said Lee Jr., whose apology came on his 47th birthday.
The Samsung number two has been in effective charge of the group during the chairman’s hospitalization, and he also promised to work with health authorities to “prevent a reoccurrence.”
In better news, a 39-year-old pregnant woman who earlier contracted MERS gave birth via caesarean section earlier Tuesday -- the mother and baby are in good health according to officials.
The woman caught international headlines at the height of South Korea’s outbreak, but she is now among 54 former patients who have made full recoveries.
The World Health Organization has stopped short of advising against travel to the country, on the basis that infections have been limited to healthcare settings -- most victims have also been elderly or infirm.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s MERS epicenter, recording more than 1,000 infections since 2012 with a fatality rate of more than 40 percent.
