In hindsight, there's nothing surprising with babies being born. That's normal and a fact of life. But the delivery in Sierra Leone is incredibly different as the infant was delivered right in the middle of an Ebola ward.
Although recent news suggests that Ebola cases have gone down in three countries in West Africa, Dr. James Meiring is acutely aware that it remains real when you're in an Ebola treatment facility.
Meiring came from Sheffield, UK, and was training as an infectious specialist in Royal Hallamshire Hospital when he decided to leave his child and wife and volunteer with the International Medical Corps in Sierra Leone, where he served until March 15. He was assigned in Makeni.
The atmosphere inside the facility is harrowing and grim. As he said in an interview, people come here not to live but to die. In fact, many patients don't go to the doctors for treatment. Rather, they seek refuge for their impending death. Some prefer to lie on the floor and settle in a position that's most comfortable before they meet their end.
Meiring was therefore familiar with cleaning pools of blood on the dusty floor, but one day, an Ebola survivor frantically called for help on behalf of a woman. When he arrived at the high-risk zone in his PPE, he saw a blanket that, when opened, revealed a newly delivered baby who was close to turning blue.
Despite the lack of training in this kind of emergency, he immediately scooped the baby up and placed him on the mother's tummy. He then cut the cord, removed the placenta and made sure that it's still intact, and then gave the brand-new mother oxytocin. She massaged the stomach and asked for assistance in helping her clean up.
Now the baby, who was named after the doctor, and the young mother have already been discharged.