Visited 11 Emergency Rooms Begging "Save My 2-Year-Old Child"... Unconscious for a Month

Refused Patient Claiming No Pediatric Neurologist
Hospital Arrived Only After 1 Hour of 119 Emergency Call

A 2-year-old child who suddenly exhibited high fever and seizures was refused treatment by 11 emergency rooms, leading to a coma in a critical situation. On the 2nd, KBS reported that on the evening of the 3rd of last month, around 8:40 PM, A experienced a fever and seizure symptoms but was unable to receive treatment and is currently in an unconscious state. At that time, A's parents called 119, and although paramedics arrived within about 10 minutes, they could not depart for the hospital.

On the 21st, amid growing concerns over a medical crisis due to the collective resignation and work stoppage of residents opposing the increase in medical school quotas, a notice about the shortage of medical staff is posted in the emergency room of a university hospital in downtown Seoul. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. [Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@]

The reason they could not depart for the hospital was that emergency rooms in the southwestern metropolitan area refused to accept the patient. They were transported to the nearest hospital from their home but were reportedly denied treatment there as well. Treatment was refused by more than 10 hospitals, and during this time, the child's condition worsened.

The child's mother, who accompanied the ambulance, could only cry and plead with the hospital staff to accept her child as she watched the child's condition deteriorate moment by moment. Eventually, contact was made with a hospital that could provide emergency treatment, and the child was transferred, but this was already more than an hour after the 119 call. After arriving at the hospital, emergency treatment began, and the seizures stopped, but A suffered brain damage and has been unconscious for a month.

The hospitals that refused emergency treatment at the time reportedly rejected the transfer citing "no medical staff available to treat." One hospital operating a pediatric emergency room had pediatricians but no pediatric neurologists and therefore did not accept the patient. Meanwhile, according to the Fire Department's announcement, there were 17 cases in the first half of this year where patients had to be re-transferred four or more times due to hospital refusals.