My twins would have been orphaned at birth had there been no HDU at Moyo General Hospital
Alice Aromorach narrates brush with death
On 15 October 2021, Alice Aromorach woke up feeling drowsy. She knew she was due to deliver twins from her regular antenatal visits at a nearby health centre, but since it was not her first delivery, there was no call for alarm – at least she thought.
Later that day, the discomfort continued, her guards let loose, and what seemed like faecal matter escaped her private parts. That is when she sounded the alarm that summoned a waiting boda-boda (motorcycle) rider nearby.
When she arrived at Moyo General Hospital, the nurses did a quick scan and concluded that she needed to proceed to the theatre straightaway.
“Our scans revealed that one of the twins was not breathing well. If we had not done an immediate caesarean operation, either the mother or the child would have died,” said Dr. Isaac Newton Ojok, the Senior Medical Officer.
As fate would have it, Aromorach delivered her twin babies – a boy and a girl, but the boy needed extra intensive care as the scan had indicated. It was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Soon after she was moved off the theatre table to the general maternity ward, Aromorach started convulsing. Her blood pressure shot up – a condition medical workers call eclampsia.
Eclampsia is listed number one on Moyo General Hospital’s admission criteria into the High Dependency Unit (HDU) – a new four-bed capacity room carved out of the general maternity ward to provide quality critical care to patients like Aromorach who present with life-threatening emergencies.
The state-of-the-art room with life-saving equipment such as oxygen cylinders and concentrators, HDU beds, blood pressure monitors, suction machines and much more was put in place by the AVSI Foundation with UNICEF support and funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
“We have only lost two mothers since the year started. With this equipment, we will cut this number to zero. UNICEF through AVSI has trained all medical personnel in handling this equipment, we have developed an admission and discharge criteria for the HDU and we have all the necessary supplies in place,” noted Sister Irene Jovial Via, the hospital’s Principal Nursing Officer.
“I don’t know if it was the medication, but when I woke, I had lost my sight. All I saw was darkness. The doctor assured me that it was normal and after a few hours, my eyes cleared,” Aromorach narrated.
She is grateful to UNICEF and AVSI for saving her life. The ‘blood pressure room’ as Aromorach calls it was her home for three days.
“If there was no blood pressure room at Moyo General Hospital, my twins would have been orphaned at birth,”
HDUs making the difference
On 14 November 2021, Sally Ayozu walked into Ajikoro Health Centre III in Maracha District feeling feverish. She was diagnosed with malaria, given treatment and was almost discharged when the midwife, Gatrude Ayakaka noticed signs of labour.
“She had come to the health centre twice before for antenatal check-ups and I picked interest in her because she was carrying twins,” Ayakaka said.
Ayozu delivered the twins; both boys normally and was discharged two days later. However, three days after her discharge from the hospital, her father, Philliam Gabu noticed something awkward. His daughter was taking unusually long bathroom breaks.
“When I asked her what the problem was, she told me she was passing out a lot of blood. I rang the nurse immediately to inquire if this was normal and she told me to bring my daughter back to the health centre,” he said.
At the health centre, Ayozu was found to be severely anaemic. She needed a blood transfusion hence a referral. Ayakaka phoned Maracha Hospital, which dispatched an ambulance that picked the patient. While the hospital has a fully-fledged HDU, they did not have the blood type compatible with Ayozu.
She was further referred to Arua Regional Referral Hospital, admitted to the HDU where she got a blood transfusion that has enabled her to recapitulate and breastfeed her twins.
“In this room, I am monitored by the doctors and nurses; when the machine beeps, they are here. I can now talk and even breastfeed my babies. All I can say is thank you,”
