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[Captured Article]Is Korea’s Military Ignoring Recruits’ Health?

Despite warning signs during his national service, a young man’s stomach cancer goes undiagnosed

A 28-year-old South Korean, whose fight with stomach cancer prompted an unprecedented wave of sympathy and online fundraising, has died.

Roh Chung Guk, a former taekwondo major at Yongin University, who served full-term mandatory military service until June 24, 2005, died of stomach cancer in the early hours of Oct. 27.

Roh Chung Guk

The poignancy of Roh’s story — the rapid progression from chronic ulcer to stomach cancer in just a few months — has sparked a lot of finger pointing between the military and his family about his death. Could it have been detected earlier, and who is responsible for any lapse?

His father has said that the family will not hold a funeral until the underlying reasons for his son’s death are settled with the Defense Ministry.

Yet at the same time, Roh’s story has prompted yet another of a rare online fundraising in South Korea, one of the world’s most wired country and where mililitary service is mandatory for healthy young males.

Since his story appeared on OhmyNews on Monday, readers have raised a total collection of 9.3 million won (US$9,000) for the Roh family. Donations varied from smaller amounts of several thousand won to 30,000 won. Five million won has been delivered to the family thus far.

One online reader, who uses the ID “catseye” wrote: “The military might regard Roh’s case as an individual one, but for a large majority of us Koreans it’s like a story about a brother. I don’t know how the military could have let its service member develop cancer. It’s just too unfair to dismiss it as a lot of one unfortunate individual.”

The news of his death is prompting a flood of online goodbyes from readers on major online portals as well as on OhmyNews.

In April 2005, Roh was diagnosed with a chronic ulcer at a South Korean military hospital in Gwangju. He was a soldier serving at the Army’s ammunition headquarters, with only two months left before returning home.

Back as a civilian, he went for a checkup at a private hospital and on July 7, the hospital said he was suffering from late-stage cancer of the stomach. Last week, his father, Roh Chun Seok, 62, was told by the doctor “prepare for your son’s funeral.”

Prior to his treatment at the Army’s Gwangju hospital, in March, he had knocked on the doors of his unit’s military doctor. Roh was turned away from an endoscopy procedure, because he had come on a full stomach, military officials have said.

Roh’s parents, whose father makes his living on daily labor, has petitioned the South Korean Defense Ministry, and other related military agencies. “My son developed cancer while serving in the Army, and did not receive proper medical treatment, therefore, the military officials should be held responsible.

But the Army has cautiously rebuffed any accountability. One official with the Army headquarters, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has told OhmyNews that while Roh’s case was regrettable, “It’s important to determine whether Roh’s cancer developed from stress of military service, or whether because of his genes.”

“If it’s the latter, the military cannot be held responsible,” the official said.

Mandatory military service for healthy, young South Korean males has been in the spotlight lately. Earlier this year, a young soldier, stressed from serving on the frontline unit along South Korea’s demilitarized zone facing North Korea, killed eight of his fellow soldiers in a shooting rampage.

Many parents are still petitioning to find out the truth of “mysterious” deaths of their sons who have died while in the mandatory military service.

Web sites of the presidential Blue House and the Ministry of Defense have been bombarded with letters appealing for help for Roh and his family, as well as those condemning what they viewed as nonchalance on the part of the military.

2005-10-27 15:53
?2005 OhmyNews