'Husband of "Ambulance Birth" Patient: "Being Told There Was No Hospital Bed Felt Like a Death Sentence... Feeling a Gap with the Government"'

Photo by JTBC Broadcast Screen Capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] A pregnant woman close to giving birth ended up delivering her baby in a 119 ambulance due to a shortage of hospital beds caused by COVID-19. The mother’s husband expressed his feelings at the time, saying, “I felt a sense of disconnect from the phone message stating, ‘The government of the Republic of Korea is with you until the end.’”

Earlier, on the 18th, a pregnant woman in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, gave birth in an ambulance after failing to find an available bed at a designated hospital. The mother began labor while receiving home treatment after testing positive for COVID-19 on the 16th. Since she was at 39 weeks and 2 days, full term, when diagnosed with COVID-19, she immediately applied for a hospital bed and was waiting for allocation.

The mother’s husband, Mr. A, said in an interview with CBS Radio’s “Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show” on the 22nd, “The baby’s mother was isolated and receiving treatment at a hospital in Pyeongtaek because she was COVID-positive, and the baby tested negative and is being cared for at the maternal grandmother’s house. I am also COVID-positive and currently in self-quarantine.”

He continued, “It was really frustrating. Imagine how scared the mother must have been. But the response we kept getting was, ‘There are no beds available. It may take 2 to 3 days, so please wait as much as possible.’ When I asked, ‘What if labor starts during that time?’ they told me to call the paramedics. Even then, they explained to us that although paramedics would respond, if there was no hospital to go to, it would be very difficult to find a hospital for delivery. It was very frustrating,” he lamented.

He added, “We made countless inquiries. The moment labor started, we reported it and called the allocation team again. Even when I said, ‘We have reported to the ambulance, but is there really any hospital we can go to?’ the answer was still, ‘There are no beds available.’ The idea that there is no hospital when you have to give birth is terrifying?it’s like a death sentence. They kept repeating that, so how scary would that be?”

Regarding the moment he sent his wife off in the ambulance, Mr. A said, “It felt like the world was collapsing. I couldn’t be with her and had no choice but to send her off alone. I felt sorry for myself and for the entire situation. It’s indescribable in words.”

He continued, “After sending my wife off, I kept waiting, and around 2:30 a.m., a paramedic called me. Since the hospital said they had no contact, I was told that my wife gave birth in the ambulance around 1:30 a.m. I was so shocked. Thankfully, it seems the paramedics made calls explaining the situation. The Seoul Medical Center apparently agreed to provide emergency care and check on the baby’s condition,” he said. Afterwards, the mother and baby were transferred to a hospital in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

He said, “I must have called the public health center 100 or 1,000 times. The message says, ‘The government of the Republic of Korea is with you until the end,’ but every time I heard it, I felt a disconnect, wondering if the government was really with us. It felt lonely, like no one was with us.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.