Comatose woman in labor rejected by 18 hospitals dies

NARA (Kyodo) A woman who fell into a coma while in labor died after 18 other hospitals refused to accept her because they were full, according to an official at a town hospital in Nara Prefecture.

Mika Takasaki KYODO PHOTO

Mika Takasaki, 32, fell into the coma early Aug. 8 while in labor at a hospital in the town of Oyodo. Because they could not handle the situation, staff there asked the prefectural Nara Medical University Hospital to accept her.

It refused, saying all its beds were full. It contacted 17 other hospitals but was rejected by all of them before a national hospital in Osaka finally accepted Takasaki some six hours later.

She underwent emergency surgery at the National Cardiovascular Center in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, for bleeding in the brain and had a Caesarean section. A boy was successfully delivered. Takasaki died eight days later without recovering consciousness.

Her husband, Shinsuke, 24, held a news conference Tuesday in Nara Prefecture to call for an improved emergency system for pregnancies.

"I think pregnant women are worried about such insufficiencies at hospitals," he said in tears. "I want hospitals to ensure safe deliveries."

About 30 percent of pregnant women who need emergency or specialized treatment are transferred to hospitals outside Nara, the prefecture said.

The doctor in charge of Takasaki at the initial hospital diagnosed her as going into convulsions during labor, a condition the hospital is unable to treat.

The doctor did not order a CT scan, even though another doctor suggested Takasaki may have had a brain abnormality while they were looking for another hospital, the hospital official said.

The official admitted that the hospital "made a mistake in judging (her condition)."