A man who visited a hospital for shoulder surgery received a false HIV-positive diagnosis, enduring a nightmarish ordeal, only to be later denied a refund for his medical tests. This story has ignited public outrage.
On Wednesday, an online post titled “My Hellish Experience of Being Misdiagnosed with HIV After Seeking Shoulder Surgery” appeared on the popular community forum Bobaedream.
The author, identified as Mr. A, said he had been on vacation abroad, carrying his six-year-old daughter on his shoulders, when he heard a popping sound and felt a sharp pain. Given his existing frozen shoulder symptoms and suspicion of a rotator cuff tear, he decided to visit a well-known spine and joint clinic in Gangnam.
Mr. A explained that the medical staff told him his shoulder blade was protruding, and that calcification was present, warning that the tendon could rupture if left untreated. They recommended immediate surgery and scheduled the procedure for two days later. He was admitted the day before surgery and underwent multiple tests, including blood work, MRI, CT scans, and an EKG, paying about $1,050 USD for the examinations.
However, while waiting for surgery, Mr. A said a nurse abruptly informed him that the operation could not proceed and that he needed to be discharged. When he asked for an explanation, she repeatedly said something had appeared in his blood test. After checking the results himself, he discovered that the report listed him as HIV positive.
Mr. A said he protested that he had been married for 14 years with three children, had remained single until marriage, and had never even visited bars with women, insisting the result made no sense. Despite this, the nurse maintained that three retests had been conducted with 99.7% accuracy and added that HIV could have an incubation period of up to 15 years, suggesting that his wife and children might also be infected.
Recalling the moment, Mr. A said it felt as though his world was collapsing. He explained that while he could endure illness himself, the thought of potentially infecting his young children devastated him, triggering fears about their future, including whether they would ever be able to marry and how he could possibly explain the situation to them.
The hospital later arranged a retest at a higher-level medical institution, and three days later, the result came back HIV negative. Mr. A said he felt even happier than when he was accepted to college, describing the experience as a second chance at life.
However, the ordeal didn’t end there. After spending three days in extreme distress and being unable to function, he asked the hospital for at least a minimal apology or an adjustment to the costs. According to Mr. A, the administrative director flatly refused and even threatened to cancel the surgery. When he requested a refund of the test fees, he was told there would be no refund and that he could sue if he wanted to.
Mr. A then filed complaints with the Gangnam Health Center and the National Complaint Center. However, the attending physician submitted a statement claiming he had deemed the surgery “difficult,” which was interpreted as not constituting a refusal of treatment. The request for a test fee refund was also denied.
Expressing his frustration, Mr. A said the hospital had misdiagnosed him with HIV, offered no apology, and refused to refund the $1,050 in test fees. He questioned how an individual like himself could stand up to a major Gangnam hospital led by a TV-famous director, adding that defamation laws prevented him from even naming the hospital. He said it was infuriating to know the truth yet be unable to speak out, concluding that the experience had exposed what he described as the ugly side of power abuse within South Korea’s medical system.