'No beds, no doctors': Pregnant woman denied by 16 hospitals in Korea

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A 36-year-old woman who was 20 weeks pregnant was turned away by 16 medical institutions in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province before being admitted to a hospital in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, about three hours later.

The case adds to a growing list of incidents in which pregnant women have remained stranded in ambulances after hospitals refused to accept them. It also highlights the lack of obstetric care infrastructure in regional South Korea, with the most recent such case resulting in the death of one twin and brain damage to the other.

According to the Daegu Fire and Disaster Headquarters, a call came in at 2 a.m. on March 25 reporting that the woman, who was staying at her in-laws’ home in Dong District, Daegu, was suffering from abdominal pain.

Emergency responders asked the Emergency Medical Control Center to arrange hospital transport, but 16 maternity units at hospitals in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province refused to accept her, citing reasons including full beds, the absence of an on-call obstetrician, or doctors already tied up in emergency procedures.

The control center eventually decided to transfer the woman to a hospital in Asan, where she had been receiving prenatal care. The transport began at 3:14 a.m. and ended at 5:14 a.m., when she arrived at the hospital after a two-hour journey.

“The woman was in stable condition and showed no immediate signs of labor,” the control center said, explaining the decision to arrange a long-distance transfer while emphasizing that emergency personnel worked to move her as quickly as possible.

Both the woman and her baby were reported to be in good condition and were discharged after treatment.

The case is in line with a growing number of incidents in Daegu in which patients have been transferred long distances because no nearby hospital was able to accept emergency cases. In Daegu, the number of out-of-area transfers taking more than two hours from the arrival of emergency responders at the scene to the patient’s arrival at a hospital stood at seven in 2024, rising to 13 last year.

Critical and emergency cases involving conditions such as cerebrovascular disease, obstetrics and gynecology, and pediatrics accounted for the largest share of out-of-area transfers, reflecting shortages in essential medical care and a lack of infrastructure for specialized treatment. Other cases involved specialties such as ophthalmology and urology.

On Feb. 28, a woman carrying twins who went into premature labor in Daegu was turned away by seven major hospitals in the region before undergoing a cesarean section four hours later at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. One of the newborns died, while the other was left in critical condition with brain damage.

Eom Jun-wook, head of the Daegu Fire and Disaster Headquarters, said authorities would prioritize assigning specialized personnel to the Emergency Medical Control Center, including nurses with experience in obstetrics, pediatrics and trauma care, as well as level-1 paramedics.

He added that emergency responders would also be stationed at hospitals to gain hands-on experience in specialized treatment procedures.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.