‘Push and pray, push and pray’

CALAPE, Bohol, Philippines – Eileen Rose Carabana and her mother were in their house in a mountain village when the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the province on Tuesday.

Moments later, she felt an unmistakable, intense pain in her abdomen. She was about to go into labor.

There was no other way to get to a doctor but to walk several kilometers down the mountain to a hospital in the town proper.

“I was worried for my baby because I could already feel tummy pain,” the 19-year-old recalled yesterday.

When she made it to the hospital, Carabana found patients evacuated to a tent outside where a humming generator provided light for emergency procedures.

As she went into labor, Carabana said she felt the ground shaking from aftershocks.

“I was very scared and I prayed that I would just have a normal delivery in spite of the tragedy,” she said.

She recalled the words of the hospital staff: “Just push and pray, push and pray.”

Later that night, she gave birth to a healthy, 5.3-pound baby named James Lyndon.

Carabana was one of five mothers who have delivered in Calape since the quake hit Bohol island.

“Another expectant mother whose house was destroyed by the quake had to walk down a mountain to seek help from her relatives before finding a ride to the hospital in Calape,” said Meneleo Guibao, a nurse and administrator of the 12-bed municipal hospital in the town.

On the way, along bumpy roads torn open by the quake, the woman’s water burst. The baby came out not breathing and had to be resuscitated.

The mother and baby were sent to a larger hospital in Tagbilaran, the province’s capital city, which is better equipped for emergencies. There was no word about their condition.

“Our theory is that she was trying to stop the baby from coming out because it was difficult traveling to the hospital,” Guibao said.

The three other mothers and their babies were all doing fine. The two of them were about to be discharged, he said.

Although not a stranger to disasters, Guibao said delivering babies in a tent amid aftershocks was a first for him. 

“I have experience in home delivery, but I have not delivered under this calamity situation,” he said.

Guibao said he worried about his patients, but was grateful for caregivers and volunteers who were assisting him and the rest of the staff.

Calape Mayor Sulpicio Yu said almost 90 percent of the buildings in his town of 32,000 people were damaged. At least five people were killed in Calape.

The hospital did not collapse, Guibao said, but there was no electricity and engineers had to check the building for damage before it was declared safe again.

Altogether, 11 hospitals across the region were damaged by the quake, two seriously.

The health department said doctors were waiting for helicopters or boats to transfer 60 patients needing surgery or critical care to Tagbilaran from Loon, the town near Calape that suffered the most damage with more than 40 dead. – Mayen Jaymalin, AP