Pregnant woman turned away from hospitals, gives birth in ambulance
A pregnant woman who collapsed at an airport was turned away from multiple hospitals and ended up giving birth inside the ambulance, Incheon rescue authorities said Monday.
The woman, a Vietnamese national in her 30s, was reported to the authorities to have collapsed at around 12:20 p.m. on Sunday at Terminal 1 of the Incheon International Airport, according to the Incheon Fire Services. Rescue operators initially tried to take her to Inha University Hospital, but staff there said they cannot take the patient in, as did other hospitals that were close by.
She was placed on standby in front of Inha University Hospital as the rescue workers looked for other options, when her water broke and went into labor inside the ambulance. She gave birth to a healthy boy at around 2:33 p.m.
Only then were they accepted by the hospital, where they are now receiving medical care.
There have been a number of cases since last year of ambulances carrying emergency patients struggling to find hospitals, amid nationwide staff shortage sparked by the ongoing medical strike. February data from the National Fire Agency data showed that there were 104 cases in which ambulances were turned away by hospitals that they initially headed to during this year's Lunar New Year's holidays.
This number of cases was significantly more than the 47 during the same holiday season last year, or the 51 during the same period in 2023 -- both before the ongoing doctors' strike.
Doctors walked out en masse starting Feb. 20, 2024 to protest the government's plan to hike the enrollment quota at medical schools by 2,000 places in one year. The government earlier this month announced that it will retract its planned hike and keep the current enrollment number at 3,058, but only under condition that all the medical students currently on leave return to their studies by the end of March.
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