November 17, 2024
This is my second time working as a gynecologist at Charlotte Hospital in Sanya Juu. The first time was in January for two weeks with a group put together by MMN, this time I came here for a week as an individual.
The sisters here from the Community of the Holy Spirit once again welcomed me warmly and looked after me. I am deeply impressed by their work at Charlotte Hospital.
This week we performed a number of operations that I could report on; all operations went well and the patients recovered without complications.
I am convinced that you can only do this kind of work if you are touched in the heart by the place, the project and the people, and that is what happened to me here and I am very lucky. I would like to tell you about this here using an example.
An expectant mother from the Maasai tribe, barely 16 years old in my opinion, came pregnant with her first child and was certainly three weeks past her due date. We had to perform a Caesarean section; the child's skin had already been discolored by green amniotic fluid due to transmission and had a very difficult start to life. As I have experience in neonatal resuscitation, I took drastic action by my standards, gave orders about what I needed now, and the nurse ran through the hospital to bring me the necessary oxygen bottle and Ambu bag. After the child needed about two more hours of oxygen with what is known as respiratory distress syndrome, it gradually improved clinically and after two hours was stable enough to be brought to the mother. During those two hours, everything that isn't available here went through my head. Everything that I could order tests for at home and therefore know whether we are on the right track or whether the child needs more medical support. I was plagued by self-doubt. What is the point of such a commitment under such miserably modest circumstances? Have I insulted the sisters by my domineering actions? Will things work out just as well without me and will I stubbornly stick to European minimum standards and mess up the system here? How will life continue for this teenage mother? Completely exhausted, I withdrew, not with pride as one might think, but with exhausted despair.
The next morning I saw the nurses involved again. As soon as I started to explain that I didn't want to give the impression of being a know-it-all European, they immediately calmed me down. They assured me that everything that had to be done to save a life had to be done. That they wanted to learn that what we had experienced made sense. Together. We sat down together and wanted to work together to ensure that everything that was needed in an emergency was always in its place, close to the maternity ward. And that it was just the way it was here: children had children. And that the young pregnant woman had been rejected by another hospital in the area beforehand, for reasons unknown. And the child's father was there, as were the new grandparents.
You should do such missions in places that are an enrichment for you personally. Of course you want to make a meaningful contribution in these places, but you should always be grateful for what you are able to experience and learn. For me, it is the lived compassion of the sisters, the incredible modesty of the demands on people's lives and the beauty of the women of this country that touches me.
