A convalescent hospital suspected of illegally amputating and discarding a patient's leg in Jung District, Incheon, Thursday / YonhapPolice are investigating a convalescent hospital in Incheon after an amputated leg belonging to an elderly patient turned up at a public recycling facility, raising questions about medical oversight and waste management practices at long-term care facilities.According to police Friday, the convalescent hospital in Jung District bandaged the amputated leg of a patient in their 80s and disposed of it in a medical waste container earlier this month. The following day, a volunteer cleaning a trash mistook the leg for plaster cast debris and placed it in a recyclables bag.The leg was discovered last week by a resource recovery center employee sorting recyclables in Yeonsu District, Incheon. Unable to identify the owner, police mobilized more than 100 personnel and collected DNA from families of adult missing persons in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.The case was resolved Wednesday when the hospital came forward voluntarily, and the National Forensic Service confirmed a match between the patient and the recovered leg.Police said they plan to consult experts, including the Korean Medical Association, to determine whether any medical laws were broken.“I spent all day yesterday reviewing the Medical Service Act but could not find a provision that applies,” said Lee Heon, head of the criminal investigation unit at Incheon Yeonsu Police Station. The facility is under preindictment investigation for suspected violations of the Waste Control Act, Lee added.The law requires medical waste, including human tissue, to be placed in designated containers and kept separate from other waste. Violations carry a penalty of up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won ($13,000).Limb amputation requires a sterile environment, hemorrhage control and anesthesia, yet the facility reportedly has no dedicated operating room. Police said the hospital claimed the leg was so severely necrotic that no anesthesia was needed, and the knee had already detached on its own, with only residual tissue cut with scissors.Police added that the patient's family said there were no other hospitals willing to accept the patient due to the severity of the condition, and they had pleaded with the facility to take them in.The patient had previously been treated at a major hospital where doctors apparently decided against surgery, judging that the patient was unlikely to survive long, a decision police said would also be investigated.