Comments on: Death of Mike White Makes Front Page of Chosun Online

By: Galbijim.com » Blog Archive » Remembering a fallen expat during Korea’s suicide season

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:46:15 +0000

[...] tragic events seem to come in groups at a certain time. Such as the Mike White tragedy, which is finally getting picked up by Korean-language media. But also not to mention the rash of recent suicides in Daegu, such as the one downtown and the one [...]

By: dogbert

dogbert — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:06:11 +0000

Did the article say that the sauna employee who saw the boy floating face down and thought it was some sort of prank a “she”?

By: Alejandro Marivosa

Alejandro Marivosa — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:53:10 +0000

I certainly won’t pardon that pun. That’s just bad taste.

By: r.rac

r.rac — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:15:50 +0000

It got another write up in the Times:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....24608.html

Pardon the pun, I give Stephanie a ton of credit for not letting this one die.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:04:08 +0000

Looks like Ms. White set up a new page: http://www.mightiemike.com/

By: r.rac

r.rac — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:24:41 +0000

Well somebody is reading expatkorea, because it’s my quote that’s mentioned about mad cow disease.

With that said I just got through listening to the podcast and am shocked at the sauna employees for their incompetence, I really can’t believe nobody would notice a kid floating in the water, then the police for their total lack of desire in following up on this.

Stephanie said on the podcast that when an American citizen dies overseas and it’s suspicious in nature, the FBI gets involved. I find that hard to believe, can somebody check on that. I’m pretty sure the FBI’s presence at the Embassy has always been more about illegal drugs, terrorism, the threat from the north etc than us “normal” Americans.

I hope she gets an answer and the police find out what happened.

By: fencerider

fencerider — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:53:42 +0000

Ms. White,
Again, I sincerely hope for two things in this case.
1. you do not trust the original autopsy as being thorough. Get a second opinion in another city. There are too many questions surrounding your son that are not answered. Also, an examination would be necessary a day or two after the first autopsy to check for any bruising that might have come to the surface if there was foul play (yes, I am a C.S.I. fan but that is entirely beside the point, the science is accurate and I wouldn’t put it past the M.E. to overlook this possibility.)
2. you have some good English speaking Korean friends with power and/or position who will seriously go to bat with and for you to get the autorities off their collective duffs to find out what happened.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:51:31 +0000

#18,

I haven’t read the Korean article, but there are several reasons why the tone of a translation would be different from the original text, some much more alarming than others.

By: bulgasari

bulgasari — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:17:11 +0000

I just got back from a doctor’s office and was looking at the Chosun Ilbo the guy next to me was reading and did a double take when I saw that story (on page 9, it took up a third of the page). I’m glad this is getting exposure in the Korean media.

By: Stephannie White

Stephannie White — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:31:27 +0000

The EMTs did not use the defibrillator. There would have been marks on Mike’s chest to indicate that they had done this. There were no marks on Mike’s chest before the ER. The ER attempted 3 times leaving 3 marks for each paddle.

The EMTs have not yet explained to the police (as of May 19th) why they did not use the O2 tank or defibrillator.

The only “discrepancy” between my reporting and the medical personal, sauna etc is I didn’t know what was going on before 11:45 when I was notified. Even with the timeline filled in about the time of the 119 call & arrival of the EMT, this still doesn’t explain how Mike could have been in the situation to begin with.