Lynsey Addario

So I'm watching the blood come out.

And I kept saying, like, I think she's bleeding too much.

And the midwives were like, no, it's fine.

It's normal.

And I got really nervous and my instinct told me it was not OK.

And so I put my cameras down and I ran to find the one doctor in this government hospital and he was in surgery.

And I actually like put on scrubs and went into the surgical ward and was like, I think there's a woman dying.

And he was like, I'm a little busy.

And so by the time he came out of surgery, the midwives had carried Mama Cisse to an area closer to where he was in surgery.

And she was pronounced dead.

And I just could not believe that this death could have been totally preventable in a functioning hospital with a great medical staff and certain medication.

And so it was published.

Time magazine published the story over eight pages.

It coincided with this very big women's conference in Washington, D.C.

Time sent 3,000 copies of the magazine to the conference.

Someone from Merck, the pharmaceutical company, picked up a bunch of copies, distributed it eventually sometime after at one of their board meetings where they were discussing corporate responsibility.

And not only because of this story, but certainly as an influence on what they were discussing, they ended up starting Merck for Mothers and put aside $500 million to fight maternal death.

I mean, it was one of the few times in my profession where someone came to me and said, I think you really need to know this as the photographer that has impacted one of our programs.

And that rarely happens.

You know, I often kind of move through my work and life without knowing the impact.