Dr Barry Kirby, THOR Foundation
Ms Kila Dobo Koupere, THOR Foundation
This paper presents the unique challenges encountered by the only aeromedical retrieval service based in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), which evolved from a program dedicated to supporting safe motherhood, established by the Hands of Rescue (THOR) Foundation.
About 5% of the time something will go wrong during a birth and mother, baby or both will die without immediate assistance. This leads to a staggering maternal mortality of around one in 30, and our service has a predominant focus on maternal retrievals. These constitute around 85% of our missions. With few roads, there is virtually no road trauma.
In the last 100 hours of flying, we conducted 55 retrievals, all of which would have resulted in fatalities without our intervention. Our operational landscape is markedly different from that of first-world countries, as geographical barriers and cultural practices greatly influence our work. The province’s island setting presents extensive travel over oceanic distances, and essentially no other emergency services. While we occasionally respond to snake bites, cardiac emergencies are infrequent due to the lack of accessible cardiology care.
Our operations rely solely on donations, as ongoing government support is absent, complicating funding and resource acquisition. Furthermore, we often face difficulties with fuel supply, aircraft servicing, and obtaining accurate patient information due to variable communication systems. Staffing constraints limit us to a doctor-pilot and a nurse for each retrieval, further emphasizing the critical need for this service in a culturally diverse region.