An ambulance is parked in front of a hospital / Korea Times file
A pregnant Vietnamese national who went into labor at Incheon International Airport gave birth in an ambulance after spending two hours searching for a hospital that would accept her, fire authorities said Monday.
The 31-year-old woman reportedly fainted at Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport at around 12:20 p.m. on Sunday, according to Incheon's fire headquarters.
Emergency services from Yeongjong Fire Station transferred her to Inha University Hospital in Incheon, but the hospital refused to treat her, citing a lack of obstetricians.
Korea's health care system is in crisis as thousands of junior doctors have been on strike since February last year, protesting a government plan to increase medical school quotas to address a shortage of physicians specializing in pediatrics, obstetrics, emergency medicine and thoracic surgery. The strike has caused significant disruptions in hospital services, leading to widespread appointment delays and frequent rejections at emergency rooms.
After 13 hospitals in the western port city declined to treat her, emergency services searched for a hospital in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province. Many hospitals asked the rescue team how many weeks pregnant she was, but due to the language barrier, this information was unavailable, leading them to refuse her admission.
While waiting inside an ambulance in front of Inha University Hospital, the pregnant woman began experiencing severe abdominal pain and her water broke.
As a result, firefighters prepared for an emergency delivery in the ambulance and safely delivered a boy at 2:33 p.m., two hours and 13 minutes after receiving the report.
It remains unclear whether the woman was a visitor to Korea or a resident.
“We conducted an emergency delivery in an ambulance due to severe labor pains while looking for other hospitals,” an official at the Incheon fire headquarters said. “The mother and the newborn were transferred to Inha University Hospital for treatment.”