A 28-week pregnant woman from Daejeon had to travel 200 kilometers to Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, for an emergency delivery after nearby hospitals turned her down citing a lack of available facilities, authorities said Monday.
The Daejeon Fire Department said it received a report that a woman's water broke at around 2:52 a.m. on Monday. Emergency paramedics arrived at her home and took her to a local hospital she regularly goes to, only to be told the facility could not handle an emergency preterm birth.
The paramedics contacted 20 large and local hospitals in the Chungcheong area and as far as Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, but all facilities declined to accept her due to unavailable incubators or other necessary facilities.
Around 4 hours and 30 minutes after the report, the woman was admitted to Hyundai Women and Children’s Hospital in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, at 7:26 a.m. She gave birth successfully to a baby boy, who was born with a weight of 1.3 kilograms. Both the mother and the newborn were confirmed to be in good health.
The husband thanked the hospital for accepting his wife and for safe delivery of the baby, according to Yonhap News Agency.
