SCOTT WAIDE | My Land, My Country
LAE - A few days ago, I asked Sally Lloyd about the picture she posted on Facebook of a distraught mother weeping over the body of her baby who had died. This is the story behind the picture.
They are from Fomabi Village near Nomad. It’s in Nomad LLG - I think... middle Fly in Western Province.
The child got sick with pneumonia, I believe, and Nomad Health Centre could not help them. The facility there has been very run down and ill equipped for a very long time.
They then had to make the long walk to Mougulu health centre for many hours to get further help.
Unfortunately, the child died the following afternoon, and without any helpers with them the parents had to walk back to their village with the dead child.
They were of course heartbroken and very hard to send them on their way into darkness and a storm. The woman has already faced some difficulties in her life. She was totally distraught, waving her arms and crying out.
When I went to the clinic she said it’s her first time to visit Mougulu and this happened.
Earlier on Facebook, Sally posted: "That sound I hate...the grief of the parents of this precious eight-month-old indicating the worst had happened.
“This evening they have the long walk back (6 to 8 hours at least) to Fomabi Village with a very heavy burden - almost too much to bear.
"The father offloaded some heavy food items and we gave high protein food and fish, a torch and umbrella- it’s going to storm tonight.
“God knows how much we need that emergency vehicle - to bring patients more quickly, but also for parents who should not have to walk a day (or all night) to get home and bury their child.
“RIP Ezekiel.”
My response to this story was a combination of dismay and anger.
My dismay is for the distress and suffering of the couple who have lost their child. My anger is because it is an unnecessary death.
This death almost certainly would not have happened in the colonial era. The reason is simple: there would have been a staffed and equipped Aid Post located sufficiently near to ensure that the child could be treated swiftly.
It is not rocket science to create and maintain basic medical services in remote areas. It is not even especially costly.
The Aid Post Orderlies of the colonial era were given quite limited training in how to diagnose things like pneumonia and then select the appropriate treatment.
They had supplies of basic drugs like Chloroquine, Paracetamol, Neosporin antibacterial powder plus various ointments for treating cuts and abrasions and, very importantly, Procaine Penicillin. The latter could produce almost miraculous recoveries from Pneumonia and certain other ailments.
It is disgraceful beyond belief that the PNG government cannot even manage to deliver such a basic service.
I gather that there is some plan to import Cuban trained doctors to work in PNG. I understand that, whatever its failings, the Cuban government has created a very comprehensive and competent public health service.
I suspect that any Cuban doctor is likely to be much perturbed by the lack of even basic health services in remote areas: the Cuban services are able to reach any part of their island.
This child's death is emblematic of the many failure of PNG's leadership over many years.
Instead of focussing on doing the basics well, which even a quite impoverished communist Cuba has done, they prefer to squander public funds on fripperies like APEC.
Some of them, of course, simply steal the money they are supposed to devote to serving their people.
A succession of Ministers for Health and their Department stand condemned for their incompetence and, all too often, outright corruption.
The human cost is vividly on display, yet the same empty rhetoric and even more empty gestures persist.
God help PNG!
Posted by: Chris Overland | 08 February 2019 at 06:29 PM
Heartbreaking by any stretch of the imagination.
Posted by: Robin Lillicrapp | 08 February 2019 at 01:35 PM
Heart breaking!
Posted by: Jordan Dean | 08 February 2019 at 12:56 PM
The disgraceful every day face of Peter O'Neill's Papua New Guinea.
Posted by: William Dunlop | 08 February 2019 at 08:28 AM