‘Lucky’ woman gives birth aboard floating hospital in quake aftermath
palu (Indonesia) — Dinar was lucky to survive the Indonesian quake-tsunami that levelled her home. But she didn’t have much time to count her blessings — she was nine months pregnant and about to give birth in a disaster zone.
The 38-year-old confronted a terrifying scene: the city of Palu was in ruins, its damaged hospitals overflowed with injured patients and doctors treated the wounded outside in the cracked, rubblestrewn streets.
“I was so worried after the earthquake,” she told AFP. “I had so much on my mind.”
But then a miracle arrived out of the blue in devastated Palu port — the KRI Dr Soeharso, an Indonesian naval ship, kitted out with a top-rate medical clinic. Dinar was rushed aboard and safely delivered her fifth child on Friday, a week after the twin disaster levelled parts of the city on Sulawesi island, killing more than 1,500 people.
“I am so happy, and lucky this ship was here,” she said.
Dinar named her newborn daughter Suharsi — a feminine adaptation of Soeharso, after the ship where she gave birth.
The warship was moored in Bali, at the ready ahead of an International Monetary Fund conference slated for the holiday island next week.
But it charted a course for disaster-struck Sulawesi after Palu suffered a double blow on September 28 that wiped villages off the map and left the coastal city cripplingly
short on doctors and medical supplies.
A local doctor stepped up to deliver Dinar’s baby, and three others so far born aboard the Soeharso since the quake, when an urgent call went out for an obstetrician.
Dr Sasono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, packed up whatever belongings remained after the quake and prepared to flee Palu with his wife and two children when he heard the appeal.
“I saw so many people in need of help coming to the hospital so I abandoned plans to evacuate with my family and wanted to assist,” he said. —