NAGEKEO: As the earth shook around her, tearing apart homes, buildings, and bridges in eastern Indonesia, Maria Florida Nogo Kelen was giving birth to her daughter.

The 39-year-old went in for emergency surgery as a 7.7 earthquake and a series of aftershocks ravaged the East Nusa Tenggara province, the country’s worst disaster since 2022, fighting off the tremors and her declining health to deliver her fourth child.

“During the surgery, I was not afraid,” Maria, who lives in the region of Nagekeo, close to the quake’s epicentre, said. “I had to be healthy for my kids.” Her delivery came two months ahead of schedule due to a complicated pregnancy that posed risks for both Maria and her child, forcing doctors to use flashlights to perform the surgery during intermittent power outages as the hospital building shook mercilessly.

Her doctors said Maria could have suffered from a fatal seizure had they delayed the birth. “We had no choice,” said Maria’s obstetrician, Yona Sara Pardede.

“As humans we were afraid ... the surgery was difficult as she was a small baby. I ask God, please help us. We don’t even have a ventilator.” Finally, her daughter, Gempita, was born, named after the Indonesian word for earthquake: ‘Gempa.’

Saturday’s disaster, the country’s deadliest since a 2022 quake killed hundreds in West Java, has so far killed 54 people across the East Nusa Tenggara province.

Many medical professionals across Indonesia’s southernmost province treated people with injuries outside in tents as the quake damaged hundreds of hospitals and homes.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2026