"On Thursday, the 28th of July, I arrived at the airport for a short
visit, before farewelling my childhood friend on her flight to Darwin.
My husband Jason, was rostered on to be flying, but with no bookings i
was hoping that he would be able to show us around and give us the tour
of the MAF facilities. My friend, a nurse from Australia, has recently
started doing some work with the Royal Flying Doctors Service and so was
interested to see what MAF does in Timor-Leste and how it differed from
what she does in Australia.
On the way to the airport, Daniel Moser, MAF Timor-Leste pilot
messaged us to let us know he had a medical evacuation flight and was
getting ready to leave. Jason assured him, that he was on the way there
and would help him get ready to go. So we arrived at the airport, looked
around and watched Daniel fly off towards the east to Baucau in VH-MTX.
Ten miles out from Dili, a miscommunication about who the supervising
medical staff on the flight would be, was resolved and Daniel needed to
return to Dili to pick up a paramedic trained mid wife to accompany him
on the flight. The patient was a young mother whose baby had died before
birth, and the mother was now experiencing life threatening
complications herself. Jon Moores, an Australian paramedic working with
the Timor-Leste ambulance service, would also assist on the flight. So
we watched Daniel take off for the second time and my friend headed over
to the international terminal for her Airnorth flight to Darwin.
In all the preparation for this flight, a phone call was received for
a second medical evacuation that was needed from Oecusse, to the west
of Dili. Another lady was experiencing complications in childbirth and
she needed the extra care of a larger hospital. Jason readied his plane,
VH-MQO, for the fifty minute flight, and I realised my short visit to
the airport was going to be a little longer than I planned. Jason got
ready to fly, with an ambulance staff member accompanying him, but then
had to sit and wait, as the Airnorth plane from Darwin was making it’s
final approach. This was the plane my friend would take home. Airnorth
landed, Jason took off, flying to Oecusse in blustery conditions.
I sat for awhile in the MAF office, doing some of my Communications
jobs, listening to Jason make his radio calls as he headed west. I don’t
often hear him on the radio, so it was quite a novelty for me. But
before long Daniel’s voice was on the radio too. He was nearly back from
Baucau with his patient.
As a MAF pilot wife for almost five years now, i know what my husband
does each day. I love hearing his stories and rejoicing and grieving
with him on the joys and struggles of his day. But i usually don’t see
what he does first hand, I am usually at home or in town and not
physically there when patients arrive. So as the plane arrived and the
MAF and ambulance staff busily rushed around doing their jobs, i began
to cry. The urgency of their movements showed me that all was not well
with the patient they were transporting. I cried when i saw a young man,
fling himself from the front seat of the plane to the nearby grass,
vomiting from the turbulence in the air during the flight. This young
man, dressed in a black shirt was the husband of the patient. The father
of the deceased unborn child, who was now facing the possibility of
losing his wife also from uncontrolled bleeding, and was at this moment
so very air sick. Daniel checked he was okay, gave him a bottle of water
and continued to help relocate the young woman from the plane to the
ambulance. The stretcher, some possessions, oxygen and medical notes
were all moved from place to place, as they readied themselves for the
journey to hospital.
As the ambulance sirens got fainter, i cried for this young woman and
her family. This was her first pregnancy. Her baby had died. She is so
very young and is now very ill. The fear and sadness was evident on the
faces of everyone, her mother, her husband, the ambulance staff, and the
MAF staff. But everyone was busy helping to do whatever they could to
help save this young woman’s life. And so the tears turned from sad
tears to happy ones, as i rejoiced in the privilege it is to be part of
an organisation that helps in such a practical way.
But as i watched Aldo, our Timorese MAF staff member washing down the
stretcher and Daniel had the spray bottle and cloth out cleaning the
plane, i realised again that this is a normal day for them. Something i
realised again a few minutes later as Jason’s voice began to speak on
the radio, he was getting closer to Dili. A look outside to the
international terminal showed me that my friend was still sitting in the
plane, they had been delayed, to wait for the MAF plane from Baucau. If
they waited too much longer, they would have to wait for Jason to land
too.
Just a short while later, i heard the Airnorth plane start to move and
it took off towards Darwin carrying my friend back to her family. Not
long after that Jason landed his plane and the busyness started all over
again. The ambulance officer this time leaped from the plane, looking
very ill. She uncomfortably waited for the bathroom to become free, as
someone else had beaten her there. She had unfortunately been very air
sick on the return journey from Oecusse. Jason, Daniel and Aldo, helped
the doctor and the family remove belongings and the stretcher from
plane. No details were given about this woman’s condition, other than
she too was experiencing complications with her pregnancy. Staff busily
worked to load her into the waiting ambulance, so she too could be
transported to hospital for more medical care. And again we heard the
ambulance sirens in the distance, heading for the hospital on the other
side of town.
I tried to express all the emotions of what i was thinking and feeling
to my husband when he finally had a chance to stop, and drive me home,
from my ‘short visit to the airport’. But it was such an incoherent
swirl of feelings and thoughts. Hopefully i am doing a better job of
explaining myself in writing now than i did in that moment. My heart
ached for these young women whose experience of pregnancy and child
birth was surrounded with so much pain and trauma. My heart ached for
their families who watched on, helpless and fearful of all that was
happening around them. But i was so thankful for nurses, doctors,
midwives, ambulance staff and our own MAF staff who were able to do
their jobs in these situations to dramatically increase these women’s
chance of survival. I know I couldn’t do what my husband does each day,
but i am so glad God created him with the skills and abilities to this
job!"
by Kim Jobs
All of us like happy endings but I'm afraid that the story about the Baucau-Woman is not one of them. Baucau is the 2nd biggest city in Timor-Leste and just opened a brand new Hospital a few months back. So one would think that they could handle routine Situations like that - wrong. A paramedic explained to me, that a simple plastic tube for the blood transfusion was missing and therefore the young woman had to be airlifted to Dili for that procedure. This "missing/out of stock" plastic tube was eating away to much of her time though. She arrived at the National Hospital unconscious and very very weak. She entered ICU and remained there up to this day. Unable to swallow, breath and all the other life essential things, here husbands nightmare has become reality. A small plastic tube destroyed this man's life. Loosing a child, as sad as this sounds, is quite common here in Timor-Leste. But seeing a life destroyed by such a small detail is heartbreaking...
This reminded me that we can only play our part and accept the outcome of the situation no matter if it is a happy end or not. Thankfully most of our flights end on a much lighter note and we see people receiving help at the right time. Cherish those moments and looking on the bright side of life helps overturning the dark shadows of sorrows and hardships lingering across this country.
This reminded me that we can only play our part and accept the outcome of the situation no matter if it is a happy end or not. Thankfully most of our flights end on a much lighter note and we see people receiving help at the right time. Cherish those moments and looking on the bright side of life helps overturning the dark shadows of sorrows and hardships lingering across this country.
You might find the following paragraph strange or disturbing but it is my deep conviction and that is the reason why I am sharing it. Helping people physically is just one reason why we are here. I personally value life but I also believe that there is more to life than just the physical aspect. I believe our soul survives the physical death and therefore is of a much greater value than life. Physical life can be destroyed within an instant but spiritual life carries on. We can try to change our physical life but to change our spiritual life we need help from our Creator. God reached out to us through Jesus Christ and carefully studying His story reveals the key to spiritual life. I am not on a proselytize-mission but feelt responsible to share my spiritual experience and give my personal answers to everyone who asks, that is all...
