by Dr Amita Pradhan Thapa

26 June 2007

Oecusse, Timor Leste: While going to Oecusse for the second time in May 2006, the face of a tiny young lady kept coming to my mind.  I was heading to this isolated enclave district of Timor Leste to conduct a Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care Training Program for doctors and midwives on behalf of the United Nations Fund for Population Affairs (UNFPA), and was wondering about Maria F.  She was very special to us (members of UNFPA – Dr Sevinj, Dr Angie and I), because we were able to save her life and prevent a maternal mortality despite the lack of sophisticated facilities.

I still remember the day of 10 February 2006.  After conducting training all day, we were about to go to bed at around 10:00 pm when a car rushed to our guest house and Dr Manuel, a Nigerian General Practitioner, desperately requested our help in managing a suspected case of ectopic pregnancy.  We immediately proceeded to the local hospital and examined the patient:  23-year old Maria F. was lying on the bed in a critical condition, unable to answer our questions regarding her ailment.  The occasional blinking of her eyes seemed to be pleading with us to save her life.  After a quick assessment and resuscitation, we came to the conclusion that we needed to operate on her immediately to save her life.  The big challenge was the condition of the operating theater, which had not functioned for more than one year.

With the help of an efficient anaesthetic assistant, we were able to perform the operation – three obstetricians working as a surgeon, a scrub nurse and a circulating nurse.

Maria F.’s right fallopian tube had ruptured due to an ectopic pregnancy and her abdominal cavity was full of about 2500 ml of blood.  We removed the right fallopian tube and stemmed the bleeding.  Then we faced another challenge; Maria F. had lost so much blood that she required a postoperative blood transfusion.  We managed to collect 2 units of blood after counseling the people and gave her the transfusion.  When we visited the next morning, the smile on her face was rejuvenating – it was beautiful and unforgettable!  She was saved.  We returned to Dili on the third day.

Since then, three months had passed and I was quite excited that I would be seeing Maria F. again.  And there she came:  a tiny, simple Timorese lady with a beautiful smile.  As soon as we met, she hugged me and started crying – saying ‘Obrigada doutura’ (thank you doctor) … those were tears of joy!  The great satisfaction was on our part.

Special thanks to:
Dr Maria Angela Bismark (the Philippines), UNV/UNFPA
Dr Sevinj Huseynzada (Azerbaijan), RH Advisor UNFPA (previously UNV/UNFPA)  

Dr Amita Pradhan Thapa is a UNV volunteer from Nepal serving with UNFPA in Timor-Leste.