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Russian Hospital Staff Fired After Woman in Labor Was Denied Entry

The woman was denied entry to the hospital because she had not arrived in an ambulance.

Employees of a maternity hospital in the Ural Mountains have been dismissed and others had disciplinary measures taken against them for refusing admission to a woman who arrived at the hospital in labor and subsequently gave birth in the car park, prosecutors said.

The woman, who was driven to the clinic in Chelyabinsk by her husband, gave birth in the car outside the clinic's gates Wednesday after the clinic's security guard refused to allow the car access to the car park, Interfax reported Friday.

The security guard told the woman's husband to call an ambulance in order to get his wife through the hospital gates, the news agency reported. But while they were waiting for an ambulance, her husband delivered the baby, who was healthy, the report said.

The clinic's regulations lacked a provision that should have ensured “unhindered access to its territory for vehicles with passengers who need emergency medical help,” the regional prosecutor's office said in a statement Thursday.

A deputy chief doctor of the clinic and a security guard have been fired, prosecutors said.

Other employees, including the chief doctor, another deputy, an obstetrician and a midwife have had disciplinary measures taken against them, the statement said.


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