Dying for Treatment

September 21, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

The corpse of a baby who was born dead is wrapped in a kanga. His mother also died during childbirth in the extremely unequipped Simao Mendes in Guinea Bissau's capital city, Bissau.

A baby boy suffers a respiratory crisis seconds after he's delivered, while the nurse tries to reanimate him.

A 16 year old boy suffering from hepatic cirrhosis waits to be attended by doctors in the corridors of the hospital.

Shortly after this 24 years old woman died during childbirth, her corpse was delivered to her family. They brought her in the family house to be mourned.

A pregnant woman who is about to give birth waits her turn in the only pre-childbirth room, where only five beds are available. She lays down on the floor as all of the beds were taken.

A doctor meets with Maria, the aunt of a 16 year old boy affected by hepatic cirrhosis, trying to explain her that the boy is facing his last days.

A newborn is delivered after a complicated birth. His mother walked out the childbirth room 20 minutes after delivering the child.

The lack of medical training is one of the major causes of death in the hospital of Bissau. Two volunteer doctors from Cuba are responsible for the only working surgery room that is extremely unequipped and lacks basic hygiene.

Ines successfully gave birth to her son, Marco. When I met Ines, she was in her ninth month of pregnancy. When I asked her if she had undergone standard analysis and ecography she told me she couldn't afford the expenses and that she wanted to give birth at home. After supporting her analyses, I finally convinced her to give birth at the hospital. She rewarded me by naming her first son with my same name. This made me really happy.

Two pregnant women waiting for their turn, minutes before they will give birth.

A Cuban volunteer anesthetist is manually ventilating a woman undergoing a surgery. Modern ventilation machines are just a dream in Bissau.

When the brothers of a 24 years old woman who died with her baby during childbirth approached the family house carrying her corpse in their arms, friends and neighbors exploded into a hysterical reaction.

Two men carry the corpse of their sister into their house, where she and her baby will be mourned.

Family members and friends gather around the body of their dead friend and baby. When she left her house heading to the hospital to give birth, they started planning a small welcome party, but they had to mourn her instead.

Some people gathered around the house of their friend who died giving birth.

A dead mother and her baby.

Some family members wait for a woman to come out the childbirth room, after she successfully delivered a baby boy.

A newborn is sleeping by her exhausted mother, on the floor of the room where they have been hospitalized for post-birth observation.

Minutes after giving birth, this woman is moved to another room on a pre-birth chair that was used minutes before by another woman. The chair was still dirty and had blood and other fluids from the previous woman on it. Lack of hygiene is often the cause of post-birth mortality.

A young woman gave birth to twins. She was held at the hospital, in observation.

Two women waiting to give birth in the pre-birth room. The whole hospital is in desperate hygiene conditions and suffers from lack of facilities. In same cases, the lack of goodwill of the Guinean Government is the cause of such conditions. There are 700 hospital beds and a new surgery room ready to be sent to Guinea Bissau, but as the Guinean Government insisted to charge custom taxes, the material will be sent somewhere else.

Lack of facilities is not the only cause of poor health conditions. Valeria, now a 9 month old girl, was born with three lags and genital malformation. Pueblos En Marcha, a small Spanish based NGO, offered to provide free medical assistance, and a year's worth of housing in order for Valeria to undergo post-surgery therapy at a clinic in Spain. Despite all the efforts made, several European Countries denied the Visa and Valeria wasn’t able to undergo the surgery.

With no beds available, a woman hospitalized for post-birth complications awaits treatment on the floor.

Bissau's only surgery room.

Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region on Earth, is a place where more than 600,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth every year due to lack of proper care and only 30 percent of the population has access to health care at all. Photojournalist Marco Vernaschi is documenting the human costs, beginning with this work from Guinea Bissau.