Meet Paul Baki, a Registered Nurse and Midwifery specialist, with St John Ambulance.
RN Paul has been a registered nurse for 22 years. He joined St John Ambulance in 2020 as a volunteer nurse during the COVID -19 pandemic outbreak.
Prior to joining St John, RN Paul worked in various health organizations and facilities starting his career with the Catholic Health Services at Mendi Dioceses. He was posted to the delivery ward at the Goroka General Hospital and later on with Medicines Sans Frontier (MSF) in Hela Province, up until 2 years ago.
RN Paul was a nurse at the Paradise Private Hospital when he decided to move up the road to join St John Ambulance where he has been attending to countless cases including trauma, obstetrics, and motor vehicle incidents in both NCD and Central province.
Paul’s most recent call in was a case at 4 am on November 23rd where he had to cross a fast flowing river to attend to a mother who had already gone into labour.
“We were dispatched at 4am for an obstetrics case. A mother had gone into labour and delivered her baby at a village along the Hiritano Highway in Central Province. It was a case of a retained placenta.
Arriving at the end of the road, Paul faced a fast-flowing river, which meant he was going to have to cross a deep muddy spot to get to the other side to give help to the mother.
In that instance, he forgets about his own safety and braved it across the river on foot with medical equipment held high up, to help the mother.
This is the selfless giving of a St John Ambulance volunteer Rural Nurse; saving lives even against all odds.