EAA non-Ebola repat flight from Abuja to Leipzig
In early March, European Air Ambulance (EAA) reported on a mission it completed to fly a patient from Abuja in Nigeria to Leipzig in Germany. The following account is based on information provided by EAA flight physician Dr Mark Schorr.During the West African Ebola outbreak, EAA was contacted by a German company with business activities in Nigeria requesting the transport of an expatriate a specialised hospital in Germany. After the ‘usual preparations’ of getting the rights and overflight and landing permits for several African countries, an EAA plane headed to Africa. The first leg from Luxembourg Findel was a four-hour flight to Adrar in the Algerian Sahara desert for a fuel stop, and a three and a half-hour flight to Lome, Togo for an overnight stop. The next morning, the plane flew under two hours from Lome to Abuja, where the patient and his medical crew were already waiting at the airport. The man had suffered two broken legs when a piece of machinery had fallen on him. He had no fever or elevated body temperature and had not been in contact with persons affected or infected by the Ebola virus. Additionally, at that time, there had been no cases of Ebola in the Abuja area. The patient could eat and drink, was awake, clear and conscious and was looking forward to be transferred to a German Trauma Centre Clinic. The patient’s circulation was stable, and there were no signs of sickness or disease other than the wounded legs. The man was loaded onboard the Learjet 45XR and connected to medical monitors. The plane then headed due north, refuelling in Hassi Mesaoud after three and a half hours of flight in southern Algeria. It then flew four more hours to Leipzig Airport in East Germany. A ground ambulance took the patient and crew to the hospital where he was handed over to the local staff. Surgeons were able to save both the man’s legs due, said EAA, to the immediate reaction of the team to the request for an evacuation from a potential Ebola region. On 3 March, information reached EAA that the patient was recovering well and looking forward to returning to work soon.
In early March, European Air Ambulance (EAA) reported on a mission it completed to fly a patient from Abuja in Nigeria to Leipzig in Germany. The following account is based on information provided by EAA flight physician Dr Mark Schorr.
During the West African Ebola outbreak, EAA was contacted by a German company with business activities in Nigeria requesting the transport of an expatriate a specialised hospital in Germany.
After the ‘usual preparations’ of getting the rights and overflight and landing permits for several African countries, an EAA plane headed to Africa. The first leg from Luxembourg Findel was a four-hour flight to Adrar in the Algerian Sahara desert for a fuel stop, and a three and a half-hour flight to Lome, Togo for an overnight stop. The next morning, the plane flew under two hours from Lome to Abuja, where the patient and his medical crew were already waiting at the airport.
The man had suffered two broken legs when a piece of machinery had fallen on him. He had no fever or elevated body temperature and had not been in contact with persons affected or infected by the Ebola virus. Additionally, at that time, there had been no cases of Ebola in the Abuja area. The patient could eat and drink, was awake, clear and conscious and was looking forward to be transferred to a German Trauma Centre Clinic. The patient’s circulation was stable, and there were no signs of sickness or disease other than the wounded legs.
The man was loaded onboard the Learjet 45XR and connected to medical monitors. The plane then headed due north, refuelling in Hassi Mesaoud after three and a half hours of flight in southern Algeria. It then flew four more hours to Leipzig Airport in East Germany. A ground ambulance took the patient and crew to the hospital where he was handed over to the local staff.
Surgeons were able to save both the man’s legs due, said EAA, to the immediate reaction of the team to the request for an evacuation from a potential Ebola region. On 3 March, information reached EAA that the patient was recovering well and looking forward to returning to work soon.