Newborn Dies After Failing to Find Hospital for Emergency Care

[Anchor]

A tragic incident has occurred in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, where a newborn baby passed away. Despite the urgent need for treatment by a neonatologist due to oxygen deprivation and a dropping heart rate, the baby could not find a hospital to accept them and eventually passed away. This incident, which occurred in a region suffering from a shortage of neonatologists, highlights the reality of concerns regarding medical service gaps.

Reporter Park Ha-jeong has the story.

[Reporter]

The baby was born at an OB-GYN clinic in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, at 8:13 p.m. on July 4.

[Baby's Mother: They said the baby was 3.47 kg. The doctor said, 'Don't worry about weighing the baby, give it 2 liters of oxygen immediately.' If the situation was that bad, they should have informed the guardians...]

[Hospital Official: The baby didn't cry for about 3 to 5 minutes. Usually, if you pat or tap them, they cry and recover. So, the baby did recover.]

When the baby showed signs of cyanosis, where the body turns bluish due to a lack of oxygen in the blood, and the heart rate dropped to 70 after midnight, a nursing assistant called the doctor. The medical staff then began preparing to transfer the baby to a hospital with a neonatologist.

[Baby's Father: They told me I needed to come down quickly because they had to transfer the baby. They told me to bring my own car. They said the baby was just limp.]

There are three nearby hospitals with neonatologists: Chonbuk National University Hospital, Jesus Hospital, and Wonkwang University Hospital.

Among them, the only professor and neonatologist who had been in charge of the neonatal intensive care unit at Chonbuk National University Hospital had expressed an intention to resign due to an excessive workload and had gone on leave.

For this reason, the OB-GYN clinic did not contact Chonbuk National University Hospital. They stated that Jesus Hospital said they were full and could not accept new patients, so they headed to Wonkwang University Hospital, which was over 30 minutes away by car, with the baby.

The baby was already unable to breathe, and after cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the baby passed away around 3:30 a.m.

[Hospital Official: Because the judgment was delayed and the coordination was also a bit late, it seems that, in retrospect, it led to the worst possible outcome.]

The parents, who had been waiting for the day they would meet their baby and had left messages for the child on ultrasound photos, had to say goodbye as soon as they met.

[Baby's Father: Anyone could see it was the golden time, the warning lights were flashing. The baby was asking to be saved.]

The police have launched an investigation into whether there was any medical malpractice.

(Video coverage: Joo Yong-jin, Video editing: Kim Jin-won)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.