South Korea is investigating the death of a 3-year-old child because a series of hospitals refused to accept him
(Dan Tri) – The medical crisis in Korea escalated after a 33-month-old girl fell into a ditch near her home and died after being refused admission by hospitals.
Local hospital in Boeun-gun, where the girl was first treated (Photo: Chosun).
According to sources, in the incident report on March 31, local authorities said that at around 4:30 p.m. on March 30, the 119 operations center received an emergency call about a little girl falling into a ditch.
Her father promptly saved his daughter and took her to the emergency room at a local hospital 20 minutes after the incident in a state of cardiac arrest.
After that, the girl’s pulse returned and the patient entered the recovery of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) phase, with blood circulation also circulating again.
However, efforts to transfer the girl from the local hospital in Boeun-gun to 11 university hospitals in the Chungcheong and Kyunggi areas failed due to a lack of staff and beds, along with an assessment that there were not enough patients.
And at around 7:40 p.m., more than 3 hours after being rescued, the girl went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead.
The case of a baby girl dying because hospitals refused to accept her has caused a wave of controversy and anger in Korea, as the country faces a serious medical crisis.
The incident has sparked debate about the quality of local pediatric health care and emergency services.
Authorities in this country have launched an investigation into the incident.
`We are investigating, but it seems that the hospitals refused to admit them due to the lack of pediatric specialists and intensive care units (ICU),` a government official said.
Meanwhile, medical experts say that the girl’s chances of survival are very slim even if transferred to a higher level.
A representative of a level 3 hospital (the highest level of medical examination and treatment) explained that because their hospital was 40 minutes away by car from where the pediatric patient was being treated, they refused to admit him.
`A period of 40 minutes may cause the patient’s condition to worsen,` a hospital representative said.
