Menyamya mercy flight saves mother and baby

By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
A YOUNG mother and her two-day old baby are fine at Angau Hospital after they were airlifted from Tawa village in Menyamya to Lae yesterday, according to a nursing officer.
The medevac operation, a partnership between Manalos Aviation Ltd and the Morobe administration, has saved many lives since it started.
Sr Susan Muro, a medevac nursing officer, said the mother and the baby were both OK.
“The mother gave birth to twins in the early morning of Tuesday at her father’s home. It was a village birth,” she said.
“The first survived but the second died. The village birth attendant tried to remove the placenta but it was difficult so they brought her down to the Tawa Health Centre, a Lutheran health facility on Wednesday. At the health centre, they again tried to manually remove the placenta, but it was impossible.
“The mother was continually bleeding for the last three days, and therefore a Medivac was needed.”
The father, Enias Kosam, said her daughter, Priscilla, 23, was “very strong” for the past three days.
“The babies, one boy and one girl, the girl, however, did not make it.
“We managed to walk to the health centre as soon as we could.
“We live very far from the health centre, at a foot of a mountain. We are lucky to be here at Angau Hospital, and I hope my daughter recovers, her baby needs her,” Kosam said
Sr Muro said the mother is at the accident and emergency ward at Angau, and the baby is at the nursery.