Choi Seo-won's daughter pleads for help as mother returns to ICU after emergency surgery

Choi Seo-won, formerly known as Choi Soon-sil, is in critical condition while receiving hospital treatment under a suspended sentence granted on health grounds, with her daughter Jeong Yu-ra appealing to the public on social media for financial help to cover mounting medical bills.

Jeong wrote on her Facebook page Sunday that her mother had suddenly developed lower-body paralysis and fluid in the lungs, prompting emergency surgery, after which Choi was transferred back to the intensive care unit. "If she is lucky, she will be left with lower-body paralysis; if not, she could die," Jeong said.

Jeong said she felt like "a crazy person" for worrying about hospital bills even as her mother lay in critical condition, but explained she had no other way to raise the funds. "The government has seized everything, including the bank account used to pay insurance premiums, so this kind of plea is the only way I can cover the medical costs," she said.

Choi is currently being treated at a Seoul hospital for a spinal fracture, infection at a surgical site, a rotator cuff condition and delirium. Her condition has been deteriorating due to complications from her prolonged imprisonment and previous surgeries.

Choi was serving a prison sentence in connection with the state affairs manipulation scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye when she was granted a three-month suspension of her sentence in June after doctors determined she needed further treatment on her spinal surgical site.