Our chief pilot and CEO Mr Jurgen Ruh ended our February with a solo medevac on the 28th (Public Holiday). He evacuated a patient from Lambom Island in Namatanai, New Ireland Province, to Vunapope Hospital in Kokopo, East New Britain.
The patient, who had just given birth experienced postpartum hemorrhage, a critical childbirth complication. The Aidpost on Lambom Island was unable to administer much needed blood, after the mother lost up to 4 liters of blood. The story in it's essence highlights few of the challenges we still face when conducting medevacs in PNG. Here is Capt. Ruh's amazing story...
"I got a call from Sr Joyce that she had a pregnancy emergency at Lambom, condition called PPH. As the information came from a known source, and the condition is a known critical condition, mi shortcut na go hariap without seeking approval from the district... I replied to Sr Joyce 5 minutes later, and another 5 minutes later the helicopter started turning its blades. When I landed at Lambom, the mother's condition was as such as she had maybe 1 more hour to live.... she lost 3 to 4 liters of blood already. Even with the speed of the helicopter, Sr Joyce and I almost lost her.... I could not make it to Nonga where I knew there was blood, I had to land at Vunapope. In the emergency, she was resuscitated from Hypovolemic shock, stabilized and one can say that seven kids still have a mum. While they stabilized the mother, I called for public to donate blood, we got two bags from the public and one bag from Manolos Aviation. What is even more amazing, is that my Rabaul Pilot is on leave, and I am short of pilots... As it happens to be, I have to appear in court on Tuesday (March 01st) and I came (to Kokopo) on Sunday to make sure that I did not get disrupted. I was in my office doing office work, when the call came..."