A nursing student helped saved the life of a newborn baby while on placement in Ghana.
Emma Beever, a second year Adult Nursing student at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) was on a placement with the university’s international experience scheme, #DMUglobal. With her was Ellyn, a third year Midwifery student at Manchester University and Iris, a second year Medicine student at Maastricht University.
They were starting a week’s placement in the labour ward of at a private hospital in Ghana in the middle of a doctors’ strike. The girls had just walked in the door on the first day when they found the baby boy lying apparently lifeless.
Emma said: “Ellyn looked around a doorway into what I thought was a staff room and turned back to us and said: “Who’s got gloves?” I quickly realised by her tone of voice that something wasn’t right.
“There was a small newborn baby laid on the table, as white as we were, not moving and not breathing - while the mum was still on the delivery bed delivering the placenta with the floor filled with blood. We avoided the blood and crowded round the table. We had no idea how long he had been laid on the table for.”
They got to work. Ellyn placed an oversized bag and mask over the baby’s mouth. Iris carried out a manouvere called a jaw thrust to open the baby’s airway and Ellyn gave inflation breaths, while Emma listened to the baby’s heart with a stethoscope – but there was no sound at all.
“Ellyn continued to ventilate and Iris continued the jaw thrust and still I could hear no heart sound. We all looked up at each other and fought to hold our tears back - we felt completely out of our depth.”
Under Ellyn’s guidance, Emma began chest compressions with the others working together to breathe for him. Eventually, he began to breathe for himself.
The baby was transferred to the neonatal unit with the students still working on the little boy until he was opening his eyes and moving his legs. He was put into an incubator.
The students carried on with their placements and on their last day, went to check on the baby whose life they had saved – to discover some great news.
Emma said: “On Friday, our last day on labour ward we visited the NICU at the regional hospital to see if he was there. We were told he was healthy and well and had been discharged home with his mum on the Thursday afternoon!”
Posted on Monday 5 October 2015