Medical Team Attends to a Mother Way Into Delivery
(Jan 14)
By Darshan Kaur
WHEN the GLOBAL SIKHS relief mission left for Aceh last week, they took
enough medical supplies to dress wounds and provide cure for basis to severe
ailments. Little did they know that they would be performing a caesarean
(section) operation.
That's exactly what our doctors had to do yesterday (Jan 13) on Pulau Weh,
the small island just north of Banda Aceh, which is now the base for GLOBAL
SIKHS' operations.
About two weeks after the Tsunami disaster, the multi-national and
multi-race GLOBAL SIKHS medical team carried-out their first major surgery
at the Sabang Hospital in Pulau Weh at about 12.30am (local time) on
Thursday.
The two and a half hour emergency operation was performed on an Acehnese
woman who was already in labour for 72 hours.
"Numerous visits to midwives proved futile for the 35-year-old mother of
four," said Ranjit Kaur, an anesthesiologist who is part of the four-member
operating team. She added the entire surgery was a race against time as the
mother would have died due to a ruptured uterus.
"It took us about three hours to sterilize the operation theater and get our
medical equipment ready. The mother was unable to deliver normally as she
had lost more than 1.5 liters of blood, her blood pressure was high and she
was suffering in pain," explained Ranjit.
"Despite all our efforts, it was agonizing to lose the baby. The infant was
blue when she came out of her mother's womb."
The medical team was lead by Dr. Kanta, Dr Ranjit, nurse Mahinder Kaur and a
paramedic, Gurpreet Singh from Canada.
There is only one hospital in Sabang. It lost five out of nine doctors in
the tsunami. The GLOBAL SIKHS team - comprising volunteers mainly from the
SIKH NAUJAWAN SABHA MALAYSIA and the UNITED SIKHS - are assisting the local
doctors to man the hospital. Gurpreet is one of the members from UNITED
SIKHS.
The other important partner in the mission is the WAVES OF MERCY, the group
of Langkawi-based sailors, who made available the vessels to ship the people
and goods to Aceh.
Elsewhere, the other medical personnel with GLOBAL SIKHS went to various
remote parts on Pulau Weh to treat the sick and injured. They spent about 13
hours at a refugee camp in the town of Ibioh to help some 750 victims.
The team has reported to command centre in Kuala Lumpur that they are in
dire need of malaria tablets and measles vaccinations. "All the GLOBAL
SIKHS doctors on the island have been conducting clinical and counselling
sessions through an interpreter," he added.
