The problem was found in a rutine checkup
It was the eve of PNG’s 50th Independence, but for Mirriam Brown, a 32-year-old from Irimuku village, it was just the day for her routine check-up at Kikori Hospital. During the scan, Midwife Sr. Anea’s screen showed something unexpected, something wrong. The placenta was in the wrong place—a suspected placenta previa. At 35 weeks pregnant, Mirriam’s path to a normal delivery was very unlikely.
Timing, for once, was on their side. The midwife rushed Mirriam to the consultation clinic, catching Dr. Jessly Mek just before she left for a symposium in Port Moresby. A quick scan confirmed the danger: this was a full-blown placenta previa. The instruction was simple and urgent: Come back at 36 weeks and we will make sure to be ready for you.
Mirriam returned on September 8th with her husband, the weight of the diagnosis now fully upon them. The hospital, had reinforced its ranks. A new resident medical officer, Dr. Justin Tomon, had just arrived for his rural attachment. Together, Dr. Korus and the new RMO performed another scan. The image was definitive: a major placenta previa, completely covering the cervical opening. This is the kind of medical complication that, in these parts, often leads to baby and mother not making it. It is a leading cause of maternal death.
There would be no waiting for a crisis. A plan was set: an elective cesarean section. It was the only way to bypass the danger.
On September 30th, the Kikori team got to work. In an operating theater far from the world’s major medical centers, they delivered Mirriam’s baby—a live, healthy girl weighing 3 kilograms.
What a differnce early diagnosis and rutine checkups makes. As they operated, they could see it very clearly: a major placenta previa, a total roadblock. A natural birth would have been catastrophic.
But it wasn’t. Because a team in Kikori was paying attention. They saw the problem coming, and they made a plan, and got it done. Great Job from the whole team.
