MSF often receives critically ill people (MSF)
For residents of remote areas in To whomrequires a petition Healthcare In emergency situations take a risky journey. In this context, medical consultant Annie Fjord, who works at Doctors without Borders Organizationabout the story of a family that went through this journey.
She says: “At eight o’clock on March 31, 2022, I arrived at the office of Doctors Without Borders, which is located in the Abs area of Hajjah (northwest of the capital Sana’a). The moment I arrived, the supervisor of midwives called me in the hospital Judith to tell me that a mother died in the maternity unit. At the same moment, the Director of Nursing Activities came in with the same sad news.
I hurried to the maternity unit with tears in my eyes. A young woman was covered by a large sheet and by her side a black bag intended for transporting the deceased. From under the cover, her beautiful face looked at ease, knowing that her baby had died while he was still in her womb. When I found her brother-in-law who brought her to the hospital, he told me about the difficult journey they had taken.”
Guidance
Hoda was nine months pregnant with her first child. Labor began at her home the day before she arrived. When she was about to give birth, she started having cramps during childbirth. Her brother-in-law accompanied her to a small private clinic in the district of Wahsha (one of the districts of Hajjah governorate in Yemen), which is about seven hours away from Abs. The clinic staff informed him of their inability to respond, and asked him to go to Abs General Hospital in Hajjah governorate, which is supported by “Doctors Without Borders”. “.
Finding a car to take them to the hospital took several hours. They did not find a car until nine o’clock in the evening. About an hour after their departure, Hoda made her last call with her family and then began to suffer from back-to-back convulsions. The car broke down while Hoda was suffering from back-to-back convulsions. The driver tried very hard to fix the car, but to no avail. It took an additional five hours to find another car.
At seven in the morning, they finally arrived at the hospital after they paid 150,000 Yemeni riyals (about $250) for this trip. In this context, the medical team at the clinic reports that they found no trace of the fetus’s heartbeat when the mother arrived at the maternity unit, knowing that she was unconscious at the time. Soon, Hoda had a heart attack. The crew tried to revive her, but it was unsuccessful.
At 7:20, Huda’s death was announced. The most likely cause of death was preeclampsia, which is one of the leading causes of maternal and infant death in low-resource countries. Therefore, early detection of pre-eclampsia is very important during antenatal care, as it would prevent deaths if combined with timely referral to a hospital or health unit staffed by experienced medical staff. “After hearing the story her brother-in-law told me, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people are at risk of dying as a result of the collapse of the health care system in Yemen,” she says.
Out of service facilities
Seven years of conflict have had a severe impact on the health system in Yemen. Many government health facilities have ceased to function as a result of many factors, such as violent attacks, limited financial resources, lack of equipment and supplies, and irregular salary payments to medical staff.
In this context, the neediest people who live in unstable and remote areas, like Huda, are forced to take long and perilous journeys and pay huge sums of money to reach fully functional healthcare centers.
And if health care services are available in private facilities, they are often too expensive and a large number of the population cannot afford them, increasing the likelihood that thousands of people will suffer complications from disease or even die.
Huda was not the first person to see how things turned out, and she won’t be the last, in most estimations. The MSF team often receives critically ill people. This is mainly due to the inability to reach the necessary primary health care in a timely manner, which is evident in the critical cases experienced by patients upon their arrival at our facilities, knowing that some complications could have been avoided.
A story with a different ending
Shortly after Huda’s death was announced, another woman was taken to the maternity unit and gave birth to a healthy boy, who had pre-eclampsia. It is worth noting that the woman arrived unconscious. After she gave birth, her son was placed in her lap.
This mother is lucky because she lives close to Abs Hospital. When her condition worsened, her family was able to transfer her to the maternity unit in time. Once she arrived, the team was quick to respond and gave her the attention she needed. It wasn’t long before the mother opened her eyes. That same day, she was able to sit in her bed, talk, and breastfeed her baby.
During this period, the hospital’s capacity gradually increased from 30 beds to 288 beds.
The organization does not know how many women, men and children their lives will be threatened by the fuel crisis, lack of access to primary health care services, or lack of high-quality hospital care. But she knows that by providing health care services, she contributes to saving many lives.