Every year, in the 26 countries MAF serves, pilots from the Christian aviation charity carry out hundreds of medical emergency flights for ill and injured people and women facing pregnancy complications.
In Suriname, the organisation’s experience of life-saving medevacs proved vital when MAF Country Director and Chief Pilot Andy Bijkerk had to carry out an urgent flight.
Andy says he’s grateful for the experienced nurse who accompanied him. ‘Arriving at Botopasi,’ he explains, ‘I saw the expectant mother lying on a stretcher. It was obvious she was about to give birth!’
Soon after takeoff, the lady started yelling. From the corner of his eye, Andy saw the nurse unbuckle his belt, leap out of his seat and join the patient at the rear of the plane.
‘While I kept the aircraft steady – my friend still moving in the back – a healthy baby was born at an altitude of less than 200ft, after less than a minute in the air! Within 15 minutes, the nurse had completed the entire delivery and cleaned up while we were still rising to a cruising altitude of 7,500ft.
‘The big smile on my friend’s face and a big thumbs up told me that all was well, and a healthy baby had been born.’
Later, with drops of sweat still beading her tired forehead, the happy mother asked Andy to name her newborn. So Andy suggested Elizabeth, after John the Baptist’s mother.
Indonesia
In Papua, Indonesia, MAF personnel experienced a similarly joyful outcome when another pregnant lady needed to reach hospital urgently.
Responding to the call for help, MAF pilot Dennis Bergstrazer flew to Ilaga, a hard-to-reach farming town in a remote mountain valley, where he airlifted Arida Wonda, her husband Kerinus, a nurse and a number of other passengers.
About halfway to the hospital at Timika, Dennis ‘turned around and saw that the patient was giving birth right then and there. Fortunately, the nurse had everything she needed, and safely delivered Arida’s little boy in mid-air.’
Thanks to this exciting arrival the plane, which had taken off from Ilaga with six passengers, landed in Timika with seven! The proud mother was even able to exit the aircraft unassisted. Dennis could hardly believe she’d just given birth!
‘Not long after that,’ concludes a delighted Dennis, ‘I heard they’d named the baby Dennis MAF Wonda’.
