Hadassah helps Darfuri mother deliver by C-section

Medical organization volunteers to deliver all babies of Sudanese refugees.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
sudanese baby 88 (photo credit: )
sudanese baby 88
(photo credit: )
Doctors at Hadassah University Medical Center on Jerusalem's Mount Scopus yesterday delivered a healthy, three-kilogram baby boy by cesarean section to a 38-year-old refugee from Darfur. Dr. Drorith Hochner-Celnikier, a senior obstetrician there, said the woman, identified only as Awwa, was in very good condition and would remain in the department for a few days. The woman previously had two cesareans for the delivery in Sudan of her four-year-old and two-year-old children, and thus needed another cesarean. The previous operations were performed with vertical cuts, "which were fine but somewhat old fashioned, as we do it horizontally," said Hochner-Celnikier. The Hadassah Medical Organization volunteered to deliver all babies of Sudanese refugees. There were three candidates, but one didn't want to go to the hospital. Another underwent tests at Hadassah but delivered at Emek Medical Center in Afula after being "adopted" by a kibbutz in the North. "The baby has his mother's nose," said the Hadassah obstetrician, who said the refugee spoke Arabic but with a different dialect than that of Israeli Arabs. As the anesthesiologist who gave her the epidural injection is an Arab physician, he was able to communicate with her. "We tested her for hepatitis B and C and for HIV, but all were negative. She wasn't even anemic, and we could see she was used to hospital surgical theaters, as she had two previous cesareans." The mother and baby are due to join her husband and his father in east Jerusalem upon discharge.