A pregnant woman in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, was transferred all the way to Busan after failing to find a hospital for emergency delivery, and the fetus ultimately died.
According to fire authorities on Tuesday, a 119 emergency call was received at around 11:03 p.m. the previous day from an obstetrics clinic in Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju, reporting that the fetal heart rate of a woman identified as A, in her 30s and 29 weeks pregnant, was dropping.
A was admitted to the clinic at the time. When the fetal heart rate dropped, the clinic requested transfers to hospitals in North Chungcheong, South Chungcheong, Daejeon and Sejong, but reportedly received responses that admission was not possible due to the absence of specialists and other reasons.
After contacting hospitals nationwide, fire authorities mobilized a helicopter and transferred A to Dong-A University Hospital in Busan in about three hours and 30 minutes, but the fetus ultimately died. A underwent surgery and is receiving treatment at the hospital.
Such "emergency room shuffling" problems have been recurring across the country. In February, a 28-week pregnant American national identified as B, who showed signs of premature labor in Daegu, received refusals from seven major regional hospitals citing the absence of specialists and a shortage of neonatal intensive care unit beds, before being transferred to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.
B underwent an emergency cesarean section after four hours and gave birth to twins, but one of the twins died shortly after birth due to hypoxia, while the other was reported to have suffered brain damage.
