It is not often that I get the chance to accompany my husband of one of his medevacs. This time I did. He had been informed there was a pregnant woman who was having complications. A local doctor accompanied us to help the patient.
The three of us arrived in the village after a 20-minute flight. We quickly learned that the woman had already given birth and the baby had passed away. The patient was lying on the ground in her homemade stretcher, the sun beating down on her, pale and weak. Dr. Mia quickly instructed the people to hold banana leaves over her to keep the sun off. She sent all the men away so she could examine the woman more carefully.
The patient hadn’t stop bleeding. She had already lost a lot of blood, and her baby, now she needed urgent medical attention. Matt loaded her up and off we all went to the hospital. When we landed and she was taken from the helicopter, I watched her being wheeled away and wondered what her future would look like.
Dr. Mia informed us after a few days that several people had donated blood so she could get a transfusion and that she was recovering well. That was so encouraging!
What was a normal Saturday “on-call” medevac for us was so much bigger and so much more. It could save a life!
Amanda
