Before returning to Korea, while traveling in UK, she suffered a serious injury in a traffic accident. The culpable driver often suffering from migraine allegedly took 4-5 pills on that day and fell unconscious for a brief moment right before the accident. Immediately transferred to ER in Carile Hospital from the scene, Hwang received three operations for the amputation of her left leg and was in coma for two months in the wake of the accident. She was then transferred to a hospital in Munich, Germany and received four months¡¯ rehabilitation therapy before she returned to Korea in November 1999.

She resumed rehabilitation therapy in Severance Hospital in Seoul, but she was disappointed at the conditions in the Korean hospital compared with Germany and England. The patients¡¯ rooms were always crowded with patients, patients¡¯ families, and visitors, and she could not expect quality medical service. Under the current circumstances, she had to consider herself lucky enough to be hospitalized despite the less than satisfactory environment.

She thought of a hospital where medical staff approaches patients like a friend and patients can relax in a quiet and natural environment. When the UK insurance company representing the Scotch driver sent her interim payment for the purchase of electric wheel chair and prosthetic, she contributed 100,000,000 won to the establishment of the Purme Foundation to see her dream come true.

Whang¡¯s husband Kyung-Hak Paik donated his share worth 300,000,000 won, and Hwang has contributed her compensation to this foundation in May, 500,000 found. Like-minded leaders like President Kim Soung Soo of Sungkonghoe University and Lawyer Mr. Kang Ji Won have responded to Hwang¡¯s vision and set up the board of directors for the Purme Foundation.

The Purme Foundation has received the Korean government¡¯s approval as a non profit foundation in March 2005 and is now raising fund to build a rehabilitation hospital with 50 beds by year 2009.