Night Shift Docs Save Hundreds of Babies Thanks to Your Cash

By Magnus Gardham

BIG-HEARTED Record readers have raised enough money to pay for a doctor to work through the night at a desperately poor African hospital.

Readers donated pounds 30,000 after we revealed the plight of mums and newborn babies at Bottom Hospital, a rundown maternity unit in Malawi.

Now lives are being saved every night thanks to the generous response.

The poverty-stricken hospital, in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, could not afford to buy basic medical equipment such as scalpel blades or swabs, let alone pay a doctor to work night-shifts.

But readers’ cash means one doctor from a team at another Lilongwe clinic is now on-site at Bottom Hospital every night of the week.

Before, two midwives had to cope with births and medical emergencies at night.

Scores of women and hundreds of babies died needlessly each year through lack of expert care and poor facilities.

But yesterday Dr Tarek Meguid – one of only two full-time doctors at Bottom Hospital – said Record readers were saving lives.

He said: “I can’t say this more clearly, this has made a world of difference.

“This support means so much. It has had a real impact for our women. This is a major improvement.”

The four doctors who now share night-shift duties at Bottom Hospital are Mosted Simfukwe, Maurice Mulenga, Phinias Mfune, and Alick Mazenga.

The new post was created following a brilliant response to an appeal earlier this year by Scots medics who led a mercy mission to the crumbling maternity unit.

One of the team, Dr Graeme Walker, said: “Record readers are to thank for saving lives on a daily basis. We were stunned by the response and we’ve been able to do much more than just provide swabs, scalpels and surgical instruments. It has been a greateffort.”

First Minister Jack McConnell also paid tribute to Record readers.

He said: “Malawi faces enormous challenges, made worse this year by a food shortage.

“I congratulate the Daily Record and all those who have helped in recent months,and we must keep up our efforts at every level to work with the people of Malawi to help them transform their country.”

The Record reported on the shocking conditions at Bottom Hospital in May when the First Minister visited Malawi.

A woman dies in childbirth every six days at the hospital.

Babies die in their hundreds each year at the hospital, which serves the poorest of the poor – women with a just few pence to their name and nothing like the pounds 20 it would cost to go to a safe private clinic.

We told how Dr Walker’s team found walls and floors caked with blood, and rusty razor blades and blunt scissors being used to carry out surgical procedures.

During their 17-day mission, they cleaned up the ramshackle wards and trained local midwives in modern techniques.

Readers raised pounds 30,000 in a matter of days for Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’s Malawi Fund, run by Dr Walker. The money has paid for stocks of vital equipment.

It will also help finance a second mercy mission by Dr Walker, an obstetrician at the ERI’s Simpson Maternity Unit, and his team.

They are planning to return trip to Bottom Hospital next month to continue the training programme.

The strong ties between Scotland and Malawi date back to the days of explorer Dr David Livingstone.

Jack McConnell and Malawi’s president, Bingu wa Mutharika, agreed to build on those links when they signed a “twinning” pact in May.

The renewed friendship has been a rare ray of hope for the world’s 10th poorest country this year.

President Bingu declared a national disaster this month after harvests failed and famine struck.

With one in seven of the population infected with HIV/Aids, tens of thousands will be simply too weak to survive without food.

The crisis has prompted the Scottish Malawi Appeal Fund to make a fresh plea for cash.

Anyone wishing to make a donation should call 0845 848 9804