Pregnant woman suffering bleeding turned away by 35 hospitals, transported 120km to Seoul

The woman, 24 weeks pregnant, suffering from bleeding and abdominal pain, boarded an ambulance at 8:52 p.m. — but ended up being transported 120km away to Seoul. Paramedics knocked on the doors of 35 medical institutions across the country, from Daejeon to Busan, but all turned her away. Only one hospital in Seoul agreed to admit her. She did not cross the emergency room threshold until 2 hours and 40 minutes after boarding the ambulance.

This is not the first such case. In May, a woman 29 weeks pregnant in Cheongju could not find a hospital and was airlifted to Busan. Last week in Daejeon, a woman 21 weeks pregnant gave birth inside an ambulance.

As the 'emergency room runaround' continues, the government has been working since last year to strengthen the role of regional maternal and child medical centers. However, 11 of the 20 regional centers nationwide have failed to fill the minimum staffing requirement for obstetric specialists.

Kim Jae-yeon, legislative director of the Korean Medical Association, said, "The most urgent priority is improving childbirth conditions enough to motivate doctors to return to the delivery room."