Coronavirus | Demand for air ambulances soars as virus exposes crumbling healthcare
The Hindu
Despite high costs, requests for airlifting COVID patients from ill-equipped northern States to southern medical hubs has multiplied manifold
Earlier last week, a Beechcraft King Air C 90 while taking off from Nagpur after refuelling. The aircraft was carrying a COVID-19 patient for treatment in Mumbai. The pilot was alerted but given the critical condition of his passenger, he kept flying to burn fuel before coming in to land. After hovering over Mumbai, he finally made a belly-landing without any casualties. The incident highlights the multiple risks taken by the crew of air ambulances as demand has surged for the services amid the surge of the virulent second wave of COVID-19 across the country. Families resourceful enough to charter these services do so to cut through the tardiness of the COVID-19 response to reach better care at the earliest. Transporting critically ill patients is a difficult operation at the best of situations but transporting COVID positive patients needing urgent care raises additional challenges, the most important being isolating the patients and the crew. This in turn has pushed up costs.More Related News
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