KOCHI: Air ambulances, which hitherto were not very common, are turning lifesavers not only for those in the country but also abroad. On Tuesday, an air ambulance transported a very critical patient from Colombo in Sri Lanka to Kochi with precision.
"The patient was suffering from dissecting thoracic aortic aneurism in which a tear in the wall of the aorta can cause life-threatening bleeding or sudden death. The patient in his late sixties would have stood a zero per cent chance of survival had he not been air-lifted to Aster Medcity hospital in Kochi," said Fahim Husain, head-marketing, International Critical Care Air Transfer Team (ICATT) of the Bengaluru-based air ambulance company, which operated the service.
According to him, since the patient was very critical and on the ventilator, the entire process had to be carried out with great precision.
"Any deviation from the plan or malfunctioning of the life-support equipment could have caused irreparable harm to the patient. The patient had to be transferred from the hospital in Colombo in a land ambulance to ICATT air ambulance and then again transported to Aster Medcity in another ambulance," he said.
According to him, the team which was entrusted with the transport was the same which played an active part during the 2018 floods in Kerala. "They had been very professional with their aeromedical transfers and so were asked to get involved in this undertaking. The whole operation of stabilizing the patient and safely air-transferring him to the receiving hospital was done with military precision," Fahim said.
"Also, the transfer included crossing a lot of diplomatic and bureaucratic hurdles due to the strict rules in place as a result of COVID," said Fahim.
Permissions for the rescue were sought from the Ministry of External Affairs of Srilanka, Indian High Commission in Colombo, Ministry of Home Affairs of India and the Government of Kerala. According to him, the patient will undergo a major vascular operation in the hospital and will have more than 90 per cent chance of survival post-operation.