9-month pregnant woman trapped in flood shows grit and determination to reach clinic
BERNAMA
18/12/2020
PERMAISURI, Dec 18 – With the help of the Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM), a 37-week pregnant woman nearing her delivery date was able to reach Klinik Kesihatan Permaisuri.
First, however, Nor Hazwani Ghazali, 30, had to trudge 50m through waist-high floodwaters to reach a rescue boat that was unable to come close to her house in Kampung Padang.
“I woke up this morning feeling sick, maybe because my blood pressure was high. But it was flooded outside, so I got in touch with a nurse at the clinic who helped call the rescue squad. She told me to pack some things because I might have to stay in hospital.
“The fibreglass boat wasn’t able to enter my compound and waited across the road, so I waded carefully through the flood so I wouldn’t slip and fall.
“From the boat, I was transferred to an (APM) four-wheel drive vehicle and then an (APM) ambulance because several roads were submerged,” she told Bernama when met in Kampung Besut.
The homemaker, who will be welcoming her third child, said she feels indebted to the APM who did everything possible to get her to the clinic about 8km away from her home.
“My husband is in Kuala Terengganu so I depended wholly on my rescuers. Thank God my mum is taking care of the other two children.
“The APM personnel told me that I had to get checked at the health clinic first before I was taken by ambulance to Hospital Setiu,” said Nor Hazwani, who lives in Paka, Dungun but returned to the kampung last month to deliver her baby and undergo confinement with her mother, Normah Idris, 52, near.
Wan Siti Zaharah Wan Ibrahim, 30, also a Kampung Padang resident, said that although her compound has been flooded since yesterday, she will not be leaving for the temporary relief centre (PPS) because her son, Aqqif Iqram Mohd Nasir, 9, underwent a circumcision three days ago.
“My home is elevated. Usually only when the kitchen (on a lower level) is flooded, do we move. Moreover, my son has just had surgery and will not be comfortable at the PPS.
She said they have already stocked up on essential items because they know that every monsoon season the road will be submerged.
“So we will just stay at the house because we won’t be able to go anywhere,” said the mum-of-four who has been through five floods this year.
