Flying for Anna
by Glen Sim and Neal Semanision
Anna had been in labour and bleeding for three days.
Finally MAF was called to do an emergency medevac 
(medical evacuation) from the Kol valley back to Mt Hagen.
While the flight plan was being organised, Captain Philipp Sutter and Vaughan Woodward completed the preflight checks on the Cessna Caravan P2-MAG and loaded the necessary fuel. Neal noticed,
“Even in an emergency situation, safety and detailed preparation came first”.
It was a short 20 minute flight to Kol Valley. Vaughan remarked,
“As soon as we arrived at the Kol airstrip, the lady, Anna, was brought in with her aunty and a community health worker. She had a drip to her hand and had trouble walking.”
“The health worker said the baby was not fully turned and was positioned sideways.”
“We put her in the back seat, but within a couple of minutes she was in a lot of pain and wanted to lie down. So we lay her on the cargo net and suspended her drip from a mounting point on the aircraft ceiling. Then we strapped her down loosely with some cargo straps to stop her shifting during the flight,” Vaughan said.
The return journey was uneventful from the flying perspective, but Anna was in quite a lot of discomfort with frequent bouts of severe pain. “At one stage she had to use an air-sick bag and almost passed out”, Vaughan said, “and she was complaining of severe abdominal pain.”
Although swaddled up in bandages, she had been clearly haemorrhaging.
On final approach Neal overheard Philipp praying, asking God that the ambulance would be there when they landed. “Praise God it was,” Neal exclaimed.
Neal’s wife Lois visited Anna in hospital the next day and found that she had been given an emergency Caesarean on Saturday night and delivered a baby boy. Because of his condition he was taken for immediate medical treatment and was not returned to Anna until Monday. At first the baby was having trouble sucking, but several days later Anna and her baby were discharged.
Before Anna left for her village, Lois and Lisi Sutter were able to share the Gospel with her. Thank God that another mother and her newborn child lived for another chance to hear the Good News!