Roadside rescue

This story from this past weekend’s camp was the talk of the staff jeep this morning.

The Anandaban staff were in jeeps headed for a field medical camp. With a full day of driving ahead over bad roads, they were a bit frustrated that they were running ~1 ½ hrs behind.

Ahead of them, a young woman was in labor with her first child. Crammed in a microbus with her in-laws trying to get to a hospital. Bothered by her labor pains, the driver dumped them on the side of a hilly road in the middle of nowhere.

When the Anandaban jeep found them, the father-in-law was crouched holding the baby still connected by the umbilical cord to the mother – who was just standing on the side of the road biting down on a strip of her hair to bide the pain. She was bleeding badly and the placenta had not yet come.

It was a bad situation, but look at this set up! In the middle of nowhere a jeep with a hospital team arrives at that moment with all the staff, tools and supplies necessary. That was also the jeep carrying the donated clothes being sent to the camp. The woman’s sari skirt was used as an immediate curtain to shield her from the road.  Anandaban’s two female doctors, who happened to be traveling in this group, immediately laid the mother down on a makeshift pallet and took care of her.

In Nepal, unbelievable stories of hardship in accessing medical care are common. But a crammed jeep of equipped and willing hospital staff on a remote rural road?? The mercies and divine appointment of this situation are enormous.  Used to leaving on time, the staff had been upset about leaving so late that morning. But, for that woman, God had them running exactly on time.