On October 30, a video titled “Kim Joo-hyuk’s Final Day Through the Eyes of a Forensic Pathologist” was uploaded to Yoo Seong-ho’s YouTube channel.
Kim Joo-hyuk suddenly passed away on October 30, 2017, after his car overturned near Yeongdong-daero in the Samseong-dong area of Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Nine years have passed since his death, but the exact circumstances of the accident and the underlying cause remain unclear, adding to the sadness surrounding his passing. At the time, the driver of a vehicle in front reportedly said that Kim had been clutching his chest, leading to speculation that he may have suffered a heart attack. However, the direct cause of death was determined to be head trauma, including a skull fracture.
Yoo explained, “Actually, a close friend of mine conducted the autopsy. He’s an excellent and meticulous pathologist. So, what did the autopsy reveal? Surprisingly, there were no findings of coronary artery damage, vascular abnormalities, inflammation, or anything similar.” He continued, “When examining the heart, doctors don’t just inspect it with the naked eye; they also examine a significant amount of the heart muscle under a microscope. However, neither myocardial infarction nor abnormalities in the cardiac conduction system were identified. In other words, the autopsy allowed us to rule out a heart attack as the cause of the accident.”
However, Yoo emphasized an important limitation. “Just because the heart is examined under a microscope doesn’t mean we can determine whether an arrhythmia occurred. The fact that no abnormalities were found in the heart during the autopsy does not mean that every possible arrhythmia immediately before the accident can be ruled out. This is one of the limitations of an autopsy. It is still possible that one occurred,” he explained. “Because arrhythmias may leave no traces afterward, ‘it was not identified’ and ‘it definitely did not happen’ are two different things. There is still a degree of uncertainty.”
Yoo concluded, “Ultimately, Kim Joo-hyuk’s cause of death was traumatic head injury resulting from a traffic accident.” However, he admitted that it was difficult to determine what had caused the accident in the first place. “If the report that he was clutching his chest was accurate, why did that happen? It’s actually very difficult to provide an answer. I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve reviewed the information that has been made public so far, as well as the autopsy report and photographs. I remember that even the pathologist who performed the autopsy seemed frustrated by the lack of answers.”
