Medical Evacuation of Patients by Airplane

One of indications for the medical evacuation of a patient by air to another city or country is a severe disease requiring skilled or specialized long-term care or rehabilitation in any clinics or hospitals with additional medical equipment which is absent in the clinic or hospital organizing patient transportation.

For preparation of a patients medical evacuation by air a hospital needs to have experienced and highly qualified medical staff.

Most often medical evacuation is carried out for tourists or expats who have international medical insurance policy.

Over the last 3-5 years the level of medical care in the Kingdom of Cambodia has grown .

Only in SSIUH in 2013 we have organized and successfully evacuated 7 patients:

– 3 medical evacuation carried out by doctors of foreign insurance companies (to Canada, France, Thailand);
– 1 medical evacuation carried out by Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation (to Russia, Novosibirsk )
– 3 medical evacuation carried out by doctors of SSIUH (to the UK, Russia and Singapore) .

In 6 cases the evacuation of patients was performed by regular air flights and in one case the evacuation was carried by airplane of the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation.

Reasons for all these evacuations were the following diseases:

– in two cases: deep vein thrombosis of the lower limbs. Both patients were male, 33 and 43 years old. One evacuation carried out by a doctor of an insurance company (to France, Paris) , the other one – by doctors of our clinic (to Russia, Moscow);

– in next two cases the reason of medical evacuation were malignant tumors. In one case to the UK (London) was evacuated a 41-year old man with multiple brain metastases of the lung tumor. In the other case was evacuated 58-year old woman with progression of the malignant tumor of the intestine; she was safely delivered to Singapore, where she had also previously been operated on twice. Both evacuations performed by doctors of our clinic;

– in two cases the reason of medical evacuations were the consequences of CVA (cerebro-vascular accidents or acute ischemic attacks) in men 42 and 76 years old. Patients were evacuated by doctors of foreign insurance companies (to Thailand and Canada);

– and in one case a 28-years old man with the consequences of severe brain trauma was evacuated by airplane of the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation to Russia (Novosibirsk). This patient was in SSIUH for the duration of one month and one week due to the seriousness of the brain injuries. He had a full range of therapeutic and diagnostic measures, including intensive rehabilitation therapy. After that his condition was stabilized, he woke from the 28 day coma – status and was successfully evacuated back to Russia.

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