Critical patient airlifted from U.S. to India for treatment

The long-haul flight is the first of its kind in India

A woman was recently flown in from the United States to Chennai by an air ambulance after she developed multiple complications following a cardiac condition. She was air lifted from Portland, Oregon, and brought to Chennai last week.

She was treated at a corporate hospital in the city and is currently recovering, sources said.

According to people involved in the transfer, she had developed cardiac issues involving multiple organs. The air transfer was done by the International Critical Care Air Transfer Team, (ICATT), said Rahul Singh Sardar, its co-founder. “We are used to transferring critical care patients. We were given this task, and we carried it out,” he said.

The aviation route to Chennai is via Iceland and Greenland on to Europe. The flight had to stop three times en route for refuelling. In Turkey, a new crew took over.

According to Dr. Singh, this was the longest such transfer done by an Indian entity. During the lockdown, the ambulance team had airlifted a patient from South Africa to Chennai. In this case, ahead of the transfer, a team was sent to the United States to assess and optimise the patient. The transfer was done following discussions with the doctors in the U.S. and India.

Sources said it cost the family USD 1,30,000. A source in the hospital said she was currently out of ventilator support and was recovering.