Bridget's MAF Journey: A medevac and a mama

I’ve been in Telefomin for the last two weeks or so, on a voluntary outstation tour. Since the start of the year, several Hagen-based pilots have come back from overseas, and two new pilots have joined. As a result, the pilot and aircraft distribution around the country has become quite uneven. Being one of the few Hagen-based pilots with the required experience, the flexibility, and relatively few responsibilities, I offered to go to Telefomin for four weeks to (a) help out the sole Telefomin-based pilot, (b) decrease the pilot-to-aircraft ratio in Hagen, and (c) invoke the old adage that ‘a change is as good as a holiday’.

Telefomin was where I went for bush orientation shortly after arriving in PNG back in early 2022, and will always be special for me. Its only connection to the outside world is by air - although a road from the mining town of Tabubil is under construction, it is not yet complete (despite having had an ‘opening ceremony’ a couple of months ago).

Many of the airstrips nearby fall into MAF’s D category - short and/or steep, or having unique hazards such as unpredictable turbulence, a tricky circuit, or a slippery surface. It was to one of these airstrips that I was summoned for a medevac during the first week of my tour.

Gubil is less than fifteen minutes’ flight time from Telefomin, yet locals tell me it takes two or three days to walk. One must cross two mountain ranges and a sizeable river. It’s not a journey that my patient was able to make. She had given birth on Sunday to the first of two babies, but by Monday the second baby had not yet come, so the community called MAF to help.

The flight to and from Gubil was uneventful, the ambulance collected her from the MAF base in Telefomin, and I continued with my day.

On Friday I had a day off and took the opportunity to go for a day walk with my tupela susa (two sisters) Vero and Joyce. We walked for about two hours up the hill to the north of Telefomin, following the road that leads to Eliptamin.

At the top of the hill, where we stopped for a breather, the road has a junction - one way leading to Eliptamin, and the other to Miyanmin and eventually Gubil. As we chatted, groups of people arrived, carrying all sorts of things back to their villages. Many wanted to know what a white lady was doing there…

A man and two women arrived at the top of the hill and told us they were going to Gubil. The man explained how the plane had picked up his wife earlier in the week, he had travelled on foot, and now they were going back. As he shared more details, it unfolded that his wife was my medevac patient. She had given birth to the second baby in the Telefomin hospital on Monday afternoon.

As other ladies cooed over the two babies nestled in string bilum bags slung over the backs of the two women, I could not help but marvel at this mama who was making a three-day walk home, only four days after giving birth!

More often than not, we MAF pilots never find out what happens to the patients we transport. Sometimes the outcome is tragic. But to not only hear about, but see this lady again, with her two new babies, was immensely encouraging.