From Madagascar by our local partner, Tanja Hock of the NGO “Madagaskar-Mobile Hilfe e.V.”, we received the following overwhelming and impressive report:
Jeannette is 27 years old and lives in a village near Beroroa/Madagascar. We met her in the small infirmary of Beroroa, which is staffed with a midwife and a nurse. The closest hospital is eight hours away considered having a good four-wheel vehicle available.
Jeannette received recently her twelfth baby, seven are alive and her youngest child is just a year old. 48 hours after her latest delivery she consulted the staff of the infirmary, because the placenta had not come out. The midwife diagnosed that the placenta had grown to the uterus and therefore an operation is necessary. This is in Beroroa not possible, where is not even a doctor.
Thus, an emergency call reached our Malagasy medical team in the capital Antananarivo. The team volunteers to help people in need in the bush.
Thanks Tulisa we could pay for the flight in a mission helicopter. We departed very early, next morning. Over land, it would have taken three or four days one way, until we would have Beroroa. That would have been definitely too late to save the lives of the women.
In the bush, we performed an emergency operation on the woman, the diagnosis had been confirmed. Fortunately we were able to remove the woman’s uterus along with the afterbirth. The entire uterus was infected and the placenta had started to decompose. The stench was terrible; flies came into the operating room, as we removed the uterus from the abdominal cavity.
We provided all intravenous fluids, drugs and dressings, which were used for the continued treatment of the patient. Jeannette stayed in the infirmary where the midwife and the nurse cared for her the subsequent two weeks. Then, all the stitches were removed and she was free to go home. After another week, Jeannette came back for a check up to the infirmary. She was even able to breastfeed again. This was previously not possible because she was so seriously ill.
We were able to save the life of this woman and this thanks to a wonderful collaboration between the Malagasy volunteer physicians, us as an international NGO in Madagascar and Tulisa in Germany! Many thanks to all donors!
Until next time,
From Madagascar, Tanja Hock