A two-way UHF radio link and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) helicopter saved the life of a first-time mother from the remote jungles of Begesin in Madang province yesterday.
Eri Rim Gomoke delivered her first child at the Lutheran Health Centre in Begesin at 5.30am yesterday but her placenta did not come out posing a great risk to her life.
With no communication, no roads, no medical facilities and no medical experts, there was nothing the nurses at the Begesin could do. Their only hope was the church’s radio link of one of the aid posts in the area. So the nurses sent for the UHF radio to contact Modilon General Hospital.
Communication was established and the hospital then arranged for a helicopter from SIL at Ukarumpa near Kainantu to be flown into the jungle hinterland to medivac the 24-year-old new mother to town.
The helicopter eventually picked up Mrs Gomoke and flew her and the officer-in-charge of Begesin Health Centre Mathew Lazarus to Modilon hospital just after 3pm.

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