Last Thursday, Public Health Program Lead, Lauryn Linsell, was conducting a community meeting in Pajarillos, Honduras. During the middle of the meeting, a pregnant woman showed up complaining that she was feeling very badly. Lauryn spoke with the woman and found out that she had gone to the health center in Cataranas the day before. There, the pregnant woman had been informed that the baby was in a transverse position and that she should go to Tegucigalpa, the capital city, to have a c-section and receive proper treatment in the hospital. The woman’s husband didn’t want to make the trek to Tegucigalpa, likely both because of the cost and effort it takes for rural community members to reach the city and because this was the woman’s 7th child and all previous children had been born just fine in the community.
Lauryn and her PHB partner, Dennis Garcia, determined that the woman’s case was an emergency and so they decided to immediately give her a ride to the OB/GYN unit in Tegucigalpa. The pregnant woman’s mom and brother were able to accompany her in the GB land cruiser on the unpaved mountain road leading back to the city. Shortly into the ride, the woman’s labor intensified and her water broke. Lauryn called Dr. Gustavo Soriano, the Program Lead for Global Brigades’ Community Health Workers (CHW) Program (click here to read about the CHW program). Dr. Gustavo happened to have just finished a training in a nearby community and told Lauryn to wait for him in Valle de Angles, a town half way between Pajarillos and Tegucigalpa. While rushing over to meet the land cruiser, Dr. Gustavo talked Lauryn through the procedures to deliver the baby. Under Dr. Gustavo’s direction, Lauryn helped to deliver a baby boy, including cutting the umbilical cord and extracting the placenta. Once Dr. Gustavo reached the group, he was able to conduct final care on the baby and make sure the mom was not bleeding. The baby was covered in meconium feces, however, and so the team had to continue to hurry to Tegucigalpa so the baby could be put on antibiotics and to make sure no placenta remained in the mom.
During the drive to Tegucigalpa, the group crossed a police check point and told the officers about their emergency. Two police officers jumped onto the truck and helped to clear traffic so the land cruiser could reach the hospital during rush hour traffic. Mom and baby were admitted to the hospital and released the next day. Global Brigades helped bring the family and healthy newborn baby boy back to their community the next day. This marks Lauryn’s second successful time helping to deliver a baby in the communities. Congrats to the new mom and to our GB staff members for their quick response in helping to ensure a healthy delivery!
