A Surprise Birthday Gift – the first One Heart baby
By Arlene Samen, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer
In 1998 I was invited to Lhasa, Tibet to help start a Plastic Surgery Project with Interplast to repair birth defects (cleft lips). On that trip I met the Director of the Lhasa Municipal Hospital Dr. Lu Xing, I shared with him that my specialty was Maternal and Child Health and that I was working at the University of Utah Medical School. He asked me if I could bring high-risk doctors to help the OBGYN department.
Baby Lhamo & her family
It was one year later in 1999 that Dr. Varner and Dr. Belfort traveled with me to Lhasa. We had no idea what to expect as this was our first time to meet with the doctors in the OBGYN department. It was the morning of July 8th when we arrived at the hospital. At first, the doctors told us they really did not need our expertise. But since we had come all this way would we consult on a patient that had been admitted several days before. Tsering was admitted with very high blood pressure, anemia, and was in a very weakened state. Her husband was extremely concerned as they had been to several hospitals and had been turned away.
Dr. Belfort and Dr. Varner, who are expert Maternal Fetal Medicine doctors, examined the patient and found that she was in labor and about to give birth. We rushed her into a bare delivery room with very little equipment. I was stationed at the head of her bed, checking her vital signs every few minutes. Dr. Belfort had decided to use forceps to help deliver the baby with ease, so the mother did not have to push which would increase the strain on her system. Suddenly, her blood pressure went from being high to extremely low and she was in shock. We knew we needed to give her a blood transfusion immediately or she could lose her life and her baby could die. Dr. Varner asked the Tibetan doctor for blood so we could transfuse her. We were told she was too poor to pay for a blood transfusion, so we asked “how much does it cost”? The doctor said, about two hundred dollars! Immediately, we all gave whatever cash we had to pay for this precious life-giving substance. I was so nervous as the mother now was in shock from lack of blood and I could feel her fading in my arms.
If we had been in the US, we would have given her medications to control her blood pressure and corrected her anemia before her birth. Moments after giving her blood, a little baby girl was born. The mother was stabilized and sent to a regular hospital ward. There was no intensive care unit where she could be closely monitored. We stayed with her for several hours until we knew she and her baby would survive. Her husband was so grateful that we saved his wife and baby girl. With all the stress of the day, we forgot it was my birthday. Later that evening when we returned, we shared with the family that their daughter was born on the same day I was, they decided to name her after my Tibetan name, Lhamo. In Tibetan, the name Lhamo means “Goddess” or Angel.
This was the beginning of One HEART, saving the lives of mothers and babies, one birth at a time. The doctors were so impressed that we saved the mother and baby. We were celebrated and thus began our journey. As I celebrate my 69th birthday, I am reminded of all the women who have benefitted from the Network of Safety. Now, baby Lhamo is 23 years old today.
