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I read with a heavy heart your report, “Medical blunder probe opened over death linked to improperly sealed catheter” (May 14), detailing the shooting of air bubbles into the heart of an already very ill patient suffering from an acute heart attack. He subsequently passed away. The post-mortem may pinpoint the exact cause of death.

News that a patient’s death could potentially have been caused by an alleged medical blunder is no doubt upsetting. I trust the investigation will uncover the facts of the case.

I wish to comment not on this specific case, but more generally – from my perspective as a specialist in cardiology.

First, medical statistics and medical literature do tell us that heart attacks can be fatal.

I also wish to point out the nuanced but fundamental difference between a “medical blunder” and a “medical complication”. This is not semantics or medical protectionism, wherein doctors hide each other’s mistakes. On the contrary, let’s just say that medical politics – such as a doctor falsely accusing a competitor to get ahead – does not happen only in Korean medical dramas.