C-sections done under open skies

Doctors Ramon Ruiz-Diaz and Vidya Pradhananga were in the operation theatre of a charity hospital here preparing for a Caesarean section procedure on Saturday when the earth shook beneath their feet.

His patient, a lady in her mid-twenties, was on the operation table in utter discomfort. Any further delay in helping her deliver the baby would have been fatal.

In a split second decision, the anesthetist Ruiz-Diaz and gynecologist Vidya Pradhananga decided to continue with the operation in the hospital courtyard under the open skies.

“Nurse, move her to the courtyard. Ward boy get the drip and surgical implements to the courtyard,” ordered Ramon, a Paraguayan national working at the Scheer Memorial Hospital here. 

As the tremors subsided, the doctor carried out the operation and delivered a healthy baby to the thankful mother. “I think you need to name him ‘Thunder’," the doctor told the mother referring to the thundering sound heard as the earth shook.

The hospital hurriedly pitched tents on its lawns and rolled out mattresses for the patients who soon started arriving. An intensive care unit was also set up on the hospital lawns to take care of emergency cases.

On Sunday, a day after the earthquake, Ramon performed another C-section -- this time in a tent on the hospital lawns.

“We have attended to 200 patients till Monday afternoon. Nine were brought dead, most with head injuries," Dale M Molé, the CEO of the hospital told Deccan Herald.

Kavre is one of the worst-hit districts and rescuers were yet to reach some of the remote villages. Saturday’s 7.9 magnitude quake had claimed 248 lives in the district, the most after Kathmandu valley (1380 deaths) and Gorkha (400).

Tales of bravery and grit abound in the district. The hospital staff recalled the tale of a mother of two children who pulled her one-year-old son out of her home that was reduced to rubble.

“The child was unconscious and soon put on oxygen. We tried to find his mother who had brought him to the hospital but she was nowhere to be seen. She turned up three hours later with her elder daughter who was also stuck in the village some three kilometers away,” Sundar Thapa, an executive at the hospital said.