SANTA MANDALENA REBELO
Baby Santa Mandalena Rebelo was born last Monday night with a very large gastroschisis
and is too enormous for them to handle at the Dili Hospital. The stomach and a huge amount
of bowel are on the outside of the body. Daryl Mills (our man in East Timor) has done a
sterling job in arranging for Santa to be airlifted to Australia for an urgent operation.
Due to the good work of Daryl and ROMAC she has been airlifted to Darwin today and will
then be airlifted to Canberra to be operated upon.
Tim Hewitt from the Rotary Club of Lilydale happened to be in Dili at the time and sent this
report
Dear Daryl,
Thanking you for all the correspondence with this matter and please keep us up to date on
baby girl SANTA progress. You and the ROMAC team are special with your outstanding
efforts for the new born baby coming to Australia for life saving medical procedure.
Daryl Mills our Rotary Representative for East Timor over 8 years meet us on arrival at Dili
Airport conveyed his Rotary ROMAC work to us and the extreme urgency for baby girl
SANTA a new born baby girl born at the Dili Hospital and receive urgent treatment in
Australia at the Canberra Hospital.
I am moved and find this ROMAC new born baby case for urgent action to be taken is
inspiring.
Relative self explantory emails herewith.
Yours In Rotary,
Tim.
Bryan Mason the Operations Consultant on the ROMAC Board writes
Hi all,
Firstly please note the name change. The babies’ name on the passport now is: Santa
Mandalena REBELO.
All the paperwork other than Hospital Letter was completed yesterday afternoon and Daryl
Mills Picked up the Visas this morning. They are currently boarding the 11.00am flight from
Dili arriving Darwin 12.45 pm. Dr Ingrid Bucens is travelling with the baby and she has
arranged with Dr Charles Kilburn an ambulance transfer from Darwin Airport to the Darwin
Hospital.
I have spoken to Charles and he said they will check and monitor the baby, looking at a
Flight on Friday to Canberra. He also advised it is very hard now to get an Incubator on a
Qantas flight and they may have to go to Canberra by Care flight. Charles will get back to me
regarding costs of care flight, but this could lift ROMAC overall exposure to $40,000.00.
Daryl Mills will forward copies of the completed ROMAC Referral and Agreement to me this
afternoon. Our Medical Director and his medical consultants have fully endorsed this case.
I would like to thank all those involved in achieving this result especially the work Daryl Mills
did to get Passports and Visas in a record time.
Regards
Bryan.
Bryan Mason
ROMAC Board
Operations Consultant