Australian case study: Repatriation from Australia

We were notified that a 29 year old man had been admitted to Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane having suffered a severe neck injury after being “dumped by a wave” at the beach. He had a spinal cord injury and was unable to move his arms or legs.

Because of the nature of his paralysis, he needed support from a breathing machine and so was admitted to the intensive care unit.  Surgery was then performed to stabilise his broken neck.

As he recovered from surgery, it became apparent that (as expected) there was no possibility of any improvement in his paralysis in the short term.  While his breathing had improved, he still needed intermittent support from a non-invasive ventilation device.  This situation was not expected to improve soon.

The patient and his family were desperate to return to the UK but his breathing problems appeared to necessitate that this would require an air ambulance with enormous cost implications.

As a trusted medical provider, we were able to gain permission from a major scheduled airline to transfer this patient on a stretcher on a commercial flight to the UK.  We sourced two experienced anaesthetists and two intensive care nurses and provided all the equipment necessary (including two ventilators capable of operating on low flow oxygen, equipment for invasive monitoring and ample battery supplies) and, in close liaison with the airline, were able to organise for this patient to be transferred back to the UK in a safe manner at considerably cheaper cost (and greater comfort) than would otherwise have been possible.