For several weeks now, the world has been anxiously watching developments with the Coronavirus pandemic in India. Although the first wave had passed with relative leniency, in this second wave, India's health system is on the verge of collapse. This also poses problems for many companies that are operating internationally. They often have a large number of employees in India assigned to specific projects, who are also exposed to the high risk of infection locally and who, in the event of infection, should not remain within the overburdened Indian health system. The solution: the prompt repatriation of sick employees by ambulance aircraft.
From Kolkata to Klagenfurt
Last week, an Austrian civil engineering company contacted us as one of its employees had been infected with COVID-19 in India. Fortunately, the illness was relatively mild, and the patient was self-isolating in a hotel room in Kolkata. Even though he had symptoms, he had only been examined via video conference by a doctor in India, and it was unclear how much help would be available to him locally if his condition got worse.
Therefore, the patient’s employer commissioned us with his medical repatriation from Kolkata to Klagenfurt, Austria. For this purpose, we provided a Bombardier Learjet 35, in which our medical crew set off for Kolkata as swiftly as possible. Also on board was a state-of-the-art isolation unit in which the patient could be transported without any risk of passing on the infection.
First international COVID flight from Kolkata
After the crew had taken their mandatory rest break, we picked up the patient from his hotel. We made use of the isolation system at this early stage of the journey so that he could not infect the other hotel guests or the medical team. We drove our protégé in a ground ambulance to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata and brought him on board the ambulance aircraft, which was ready for take-off. We took off for Austria immediately and arrived in Klagenfurt the next morning (local time) after a smooth flight.
According to information from Flight Handling in India, our flight was the first international COVID ambulance flight to take off from the airport in Kolkata. In view of the current situation with the pandemic in India, further medical repatriation flights may unfortunately be necessary. We are ready to assist our patients at any time and bring them safely home.
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Our experienced team is at your disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to organise a fast and safe ambulance flight. Contact us at any time for a free consultation or a non-binding quotation.
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