WINGED WARRIORS

Air ambulance services are finding more takers, especially in India’s small towns and cities, where super-speciality care is hard to find

THE TRUTH IS, WE NEED MORE AIR AMBULANCE SERVICES. SIMILAR INITIATIVES BY THE GOVERNMENT WOULD HELP REDUCE THE COST OF SUCH SERVICES AND MAKE THEM AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC AS WELL.
RAMAKANTA PANDA, vice-chairman and managing director, Asian Heart Hospital

Air ambulance services are finding more takers, especially in India’s small towns and cities, where super-speciality care is hard to find. Last Monday, a chartered plane flew from Delhi to Bhopal early in the morning to pick up two passengers.

Octavian Nino, 29, a German injured in a road accident in Kerala, is air-lifted to Bangalore by Air Rescuers. With him is his mother, Barbara, and Air Rescuers founder Dr Sanjay Sharma, a critical care specialist.

But it wasn’t just a plane, and the men weren’t just passengers. On board the flight was a chest specialist and emergency medicine expert, a nurse, a paramedic and advanced life-support machinery. And the fliers were a 50-year-old businessman in critical condition from respiratory distress, and his worried father.

“About two weeks ago, my son Alok developed acute chest pain and difficulty breathing. We had him admitted to a local hospital, but tests proved inconclusive,” says Ashok Khare, 68, a retired government official. “We then took him to another hospital, with similar results. By this time, his condition had deteriorated and we decided to move him out of Bhopal.”

The Khares knew they didn’t have much time. “A train would have taken too long and been too risky, so we opted for an air ambulance,” says Ashok.

They made a call to Medanta – The Medicity in Gurgaon, which specialises in air-lifting critical patients, using rented aircraft and in-house equipment and manpower. In about two hours, Alok and his father had been airlifted and transported back to the super-speciality hospital, where Medanta’s doctors diagnosed him with acute respiratory failure.

“We did a CT scan of the chest and found multiple clots in both lungs. We quickly put him on clot-busters and he responded within 24 hours,” says Dr Praveen Chandra, chairman of interventional cardiology at Medanta Heart Institute. “A week later, he was ready to be discharged.”

Medanta has a dedicated team that specialises in transporting critical patients by air, which is why the Indian government relied on them to transport the December 16 Delhi gangrape victim from New Delhi’s Safdarjung to a hospital in Singapore.

Across the country, similar services are finding a growing number of takers, particularly when it comes to moving emergency cases from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns to the super-speciality hospitals in Delhi and Mumbai.

From one or two transfers a month about two years ago, major hospitals now get as many as one case a day brought in or taken home by air ambulance.

Usually, these are critical patients from outside the city, who have not responded to treatment at local hospitals or need super-speciality care that is not available in their hometowns.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Despite the high price tag, operators in Delhi and Mumbai are seeing growing demand for airambulance services. Mumbai’s two operators — Air Rescuers and Vibha Air Ambulance — receive about five inquiries a day.

The service costs a minimum of Rs 75,000 per flying hour, with prices varying depending on the distance or time taken, equipment required on board, type of aircraft and airport landing charge.

But for families like the Agarwals from Chhattisgarh, the price is more than worth it.

March 13 unfolded like a nightmare for businessman Sitaram Agrawal, 42. His wife, Anita, 38, who had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was being treated at a private hospital in the state capital of Raipur, stopped responding to treatment. The attending neurologist diagnosed her with 75% brain damage. He then informed Sitaram that his wife needed an urgent brain operation that could not be conducted at the hospital.

“I could think of only one way to save Anita’s life, and that was to move her to Mumbai,” says Sitaram.

“They told me I had just 48 hours before Anita slipped into a coma, and the air ambulancesounded perfect — fast and safe,” he says.

Sitaram contacted Air Rescuers, a Mumbai-based helicopter service that offers to ferry patients in aircraft specially kitted out with portable ICUs and doctors on board.

As soon as Sitaram had completed his call, the company took over.

“In all cases, our medical coordinator first gets in touch with the doctors treating the patient, to understand their exact condition, on, the medication and d equipment that will be needed on board — and most importantly, to confirm that the patient is fit to be transported,” says Sanjay Mishra, chief ief managing directorr of Air Rescuers. “During the flight too, too we stay in constant touch with doctors at both ends, so that we can monitor the patient’s condition closely and provide tertiary healthcare.”

Three-and-a-half hours later, Anita was safely ensconced in the ICU at south Mumbai’s premier Bombay Hospital. She was treated, declared out of danger and is now back home, stable and recovering.

“With air ambulances, the patient gets the quickest possible transportation and avoids the terrible road conditions in our city,” says Tarang Gyanchandani, chief executive officer of Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital.

Adds Dr Ashendu Pandey, senior vicepresident of operations at Delhi’s Max Healthcare hospital: “Our team is in the air within 30 minutes of receiving a call.”

For Sitaram, the air ambulance service was a lifesaver.

“If not for the air ambulance, I would have lost my wife that day,” says Sitaram. “At such times, money isn’t a factor; it’s about preserving your family’s well-being.”