(Getty Images) Two doctors have been referred to prosecutors over allegations that they refused to treat an emergency patient without proper justification, leading to the patient’s death in Daegu three years ago, police said.Police sent the case to prosecutors in April after a three-year investigation into the March 2023 incident, in which several hospitals allegedly refused to accept the patient or provide first aid.The patient, a 15-year-old girl, had fallen from a four-story building in Daegu and suffered a head injury. An ambulance first took her to Daegu Fatima Hospital, where doctors refused to admit her, according to police.A resident at the emergency center failed to conduct proper triage and said the patient needed psychiatric evaluation and treatment, police said.Other hospitals in Daegu, including Kyungpook National University Hospital and Daegu Catholic University Medical Center, also declined to accept her, citing the lack of available neurosurgeons or staff shortages.The ambulance traveled to more than eight hospitals over about two hours. The patient later went into cardiac arrest and died.“The accused cited the lack of neurosurgical specialists as the reason for refusing the patient at the time,” police said. “However, that does not justify their failure to provide basic treatment during an emergency.”Police said a related administrative lawsuit also supported their case. At the time, the government cut subsidies to some of the hospitals that had refused to treat the patient. When the hospitals filed a lawsuit challenging the decision, the court ruled that the government’s action was justified.The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine issued a statement expressing condolences to the patient and her family, while criticizing what it called belated police action against individual doctors.“At the time of the accident, the Ministry of Health and Welfare conducted a thorough investigation and took administrative action against the hospitals. It did not accuse individual doctors,” the statement said.“We hope prosecutors make the right decision not to indict these individuals and allow the government and the medical community to work together to address the hospital-shopping crisis.”One of the two doctors was a resident at the time of the incident and is currently working as an Army surgeon, while the other is still working at the same university hospital, according to the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine.