'I am proud of what I did,' says nurse who helped deliver baby on SGR

Fauziya Lugogo, a nurse at Kenyatta Teaching and Referral Hospital. Midwifery comes with passion and knowledge of how to take care of a childbearing mother, newborn infant and their lives after delivery. For Fauziya Lugogo, a nurse at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), reducing the mortality rate drives her passion to help women deliver safely. This was evident when she recently helped a passenger onboard the Madaraka Express passenger service train to Mombasa. "I was onboard the train relaxing on coach seven when I heard a passenger shouting that there was a mother in labor. I quickly rushed to her following my midwifery instinct," Fauziya narrates. On Wednesday, June 21, Fauziya boarded the train seated at coach seven to attend her friend's traditional wedding ceremony (Ruracio) in the coastal region. "I had just ended my night shift duty at KNH and decided to take some days off work. When I heard that a woman on the train was in labor, I responded without an afterthought," she says. The 29-year-old narrates the situation on the train when the news of an infant delivery broke into the ears of passengers. "Security was heightened around the expectant mother and she was surrounded with sheets as a fence for her to deliver privately." Luckily, she was allowed by the train attendants to gain access to the mother after proving to them that she was a professional who could help. Fauziya says that upon her access to the patient, she found Dr Indanyenyi Luseso who also happened to be a passenger onboard already attending to the mother. "There was only one pair of gloves left in the first aid kit and that's what I used regardless. Being a precipitate labor, the delivery was very fast and within no time she delivered a bouncing baby girl," she says. She decries the inadequate emergency kits that derailed their service on the train, expressing her insecurity while using "there was only one pair of gloves." To add to her worries, the emergency tool kit lacked certain equipment so she had to maneuver ways to ensure the safety of the mother and the infant. "There was no sterile equipment, no surgical sewing needles or even oxytocin injection to reduce bleeding after childbirth. I had to think outside the box to manually simulate the uterus," she says. The nurse says that they had to use the wet wipes to clean the patient and occasionally they messaged the membrane without any sterile gloves. After the baby was delivered, Fauziya examined the baby and realized that she had breathing difficulty that could have been caused by stress as a result of the mother's overworking muscles. If it were in a normal hospital delivery set-up, an infant with a blocked nostril could have been relieved with a saline nose drop or placed under oxygen if severe. "When I examined the baby, the nostril was blocked and she could not breathe properly. I had to stimulate the baby by rubbing her hands and attaching her to her mother," she says. The infant and the mother were lucky because the train stopped a few minutes later at the Mariakani station where the management had arranged for an ambulance to refer them to the nearest Sub-County hospital. Fauziya has been working in maternity since 2019 and this was just one among many deliveries she has done outside the hospital. "Of course, if I come across a similar situation anywhere anytime, I won't think twice. This is not my first experience, I once helped a patient who fainted in the Standard Gauge Railway," she says. She believes that vicious acts pay and that's why she never relents on offering her services to those in need. However, Fauziya recommends that railway corporations should have a medical professional onboard and a fully equipped emergency trolley to help in the future if such emergencies occur.

'I am proud of what I did,' says nurse who helped deliver baby on SGR

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'I am proud of what I did,' says nurse who helped deliver baby on SGR

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