Year in Review: First all-female surgical team at Melfort hospital delivers baby girl

Dr. Erin Beresh said she was called into the hospital to perform an emergency caesarean and was coincidentally accompanied by an all female surgical staff.

“When we got to the [operating room], we realized that this is probably the first time this has ever happened in Melfort,” Beresh said. “Dr. Nyberg suggested taking a picture so we finished up with the patient and then took a photo.”

Beresh was the surgeon on call with Dr. Stephanie Nyberg as the physician on-call and Dr. Chelsea Wilgenbush was the anesthesiologist on-call.

As the first permanent female surgeon at the hospital, Beresh was also able to perform her first solo caesarean.

“It was really good to get it under my belt and everything went smoothly and we welcomed another little woman into the world so it was just a super happy day,” she said.

Kerrie de Gooijer, the mother of the baby girl, said it was a really cool and unique thing to have happen.

“We were happy we delivered in Melfort. With the new children’s hospital in Saskatoon, we had thought about going straight there but I’m glad we didn’t,” de Gooijer said. “My husband, Curtis, told me about the all-female team after she was born and how he was the only male in the room.”

The first-time mom looks forward to telling her daughter Mya Iris all about the team of impressive, young women that brought her into the world.

“Dr. Beresh and everyone else were so professional and made me feel at ease, so that was very helpful especially when you look back on it now,” de Gooijer said.

With the majority of people practicing medicine being men, Beresh said that it is important to have the female physicians in the Melfort area able to serve as role models.

“Certainly, our staff in the OR is fantastic and we have had the capability to do C-sections for a long time,” Beresh said. “We have wonderful male colleagues as well but I think that it is very nice and remarkable to have young women here making it known.”

Other female physicians in Melfort are Dr. Desjardins who recently returned from her maternity leave on Dec. 16 as well as Dr. Levendall.

Beresh did her medical school training in Saskatoon, followed by residency in Regina, and then training in Winnipeg over the last year. She began practicing in Melfort on Oct. 1.

“It was not uncommon in those places to have women around you doing all kinds of roles,” Beresh said. “To have someone step into the role of surgeon and anesthesiologist and surgical assist is a big deal because it just hasn’t happened in this community.”

As the doctor enters the new year, she said she is excited to be in Melfort serving the community.

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angie.rolheiser@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser

by Angie Rolheiser

Year in Review: First all-female surgical team at Melfort hospital delivers baby girl

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