Retained twin from Sarawaget delivered safely after Medevac

Preparing the helicopter stretcher at Gana Village to transfer the mother. The mother was brought to the helicopter landing site using a makeshift stretcher.

A pregnant woman from Gana village near Dinangat in the Kabwum District of Morobe Province received emergency medical care on Tuesday (January 07th 2025) after experiencing complications during childbirth.

The unbooked mother, Louisa Boiwe, 18, gave birth to her first twin at around 10pm on Sunday (January 05th 2025), but experienced complications with the delivery of her second child and the retention of the placenta.

Village Birth Attendant Trawe Rosenge and Teacher Manu Yusoka, assessed Boiwe and determined that she required urgent medical attention. They requested a medical evacuation (medevac) from the provincial health authorities on Monday (06th January, 2025) at 1:40pm.

“There are fetal movements of twin 2, and the mother is having mild labour pains,” they said.

Gana Village is a new location on the Manolos helicopter landing site, this meant the medevac flight was the first time a Manolos helicopter landed in that village. Due to the remoteness and the lack of health workers at the nearest health center, which is two hours away, a medevac was deemed necessary. The medevac was however cancelled due to poor weather conditions in the Sarawaget Area.

Map showing Gana Village. On coordinates 6° 8’15.57 S 146° 38’12.85 E it is a new location and the first time a Manolos helicopter was able to land at the location.

Despite challenges with inconsistent network coverage, the MAMA Foundation medevac team maintained communication with Rosenge who updated them on Boiwe's condition.

The guardian with the first twin.

On Tuesday (07th January 2025), with no improvement in her condition, the medevac team was dispatched. A helicopter picked up Boiwe from the Gana soccer field at 7am and transported her to Lae, where she was taken to ANGAU Hospital.

At ANGAU Hospital, medical professionals successfully delivered the second twin the same day. According to hospital records, the second twin was alive well.

MAMA Foundation partners with Manolos Aviation Ltd to carry out helicopter emergency medical services from remote areas of Papua New Guinea.

In the first two weeks of 2025, this is the third medevac flight done by MAMA Foundation for rural mothers experiencing child-birth complications. The first was from Dinangat Village also in Kabwum, and the second from Asarao village in Markham District.

Mother was transferred from the helicopter to the ambulance at the Manolos Lae Heliport.