A 10-year-old girl fell in to a coma due to a glitch in medical support gear while being transported via helicopter, according to a story shared on a community bulletin in North Jeolla Province, July 12.

Written by the parent of the girl, the story claimed that the fire department‘s helicopter used to take the girl to a bigger hospital lacked an oxygen supply, which gravely exacerbated her medical condition. 

The patient was to change from a hospital in South Jeolla Province to a bigger hospital in Seoul on July 7 when the incident occurred.

On the day, the patient waited for the helicopter on the hospital rooftop on a wheeled bed connected to an oxygen tank.

The helicopter arrived 10 to 15 minutes late during which time the tank ran out of oxygen.

The medical staff connected the patient to a manual oxygen pump and moved her inside the helicopter, however, the vehicle’s oxygen tank was empty.

There was a further delay of 10 minutes, with the patient short of breath, before the medics called off the trip and moved the patient back inside the emergency room.

According to the parent, the girl had been able to make eye contact and hold simple conversations prior to the botched trip, however, after she ran out of oxygen supply on the rooftop, she lost consciousness and fell into a coma.

She was moved to Seoul the next day via road ambulance.

The girl’s parent called for justice for her daughter. “How can a helicopter designed to carry patients with serious illnesses lack oxygen in its tank?”

The fire department that had dispatched the helicopter claimed there had been six hours’ worth of oxygen in the tank, however, a glitch in a hose may have caused a leak.

The helicopter in question had been in service for 7 years and 8 months. It had gone under maintenance on March 16 to exchange decrepit parts.

After the maintenance the helicopter was dispatched eight times of which three times it had used the oxygen supply kit.

The Central Fire Department is running a self-inspection to discern the cause of the glitch and to follow up with preventive measures for the future.

The 10-year-old girl arrived at a local medical center on July 2 after she suffered an abrupt seizure.

Her condition deteriorated, upon which she was moved to an intensive care unit in South Jeolla Province up to the day she was to board the helicopter to move to a hospital in Seoul.

The doctor who diagnosed the girl in South Jeolla Province said that she had a serious case of pulmonary edema which made her breathing uneasy. She also needed appendix surgery.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)