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Now, air ambulance
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Galaxy Rescue 999, an air ambulance and evacuation service, offers to transport the ailing from point A to point B in the shortest time possible. PRINCE FREDERICK meets the duo behind it
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PHOTO: T. SINGARAVELOU
TIMELY HELP TO PATIENTS Dr. Sairamanan and Jayakumar
Dr. Sairamanan has not forgotten his indebtedness to a roustabout. On board an ONGC drill vessel off the Andamans, this unskilled labourer had badly injured his hand and a good portion of it was lying around the deck in slender, blood stained pieces. After a quick treatment that made liberal use of haemostatic agents, the doctor picked up nearly 30 bits of flesh ("Some of them were strewn across the deck while the others had made it to the belly of the piping and since it was past midnight, the search operation had to be undertaken under the glare of powerful beams of light") and packed them in salt and ice and sought a helicopter. At first light, the flying machine landed on the vessel. That very day, the worker's hand was successfully `stitched together' at a reputed hospital in Chennai.
This incident got Dr. Sairamanan thinking about the necessity of dedicated and efficient private air ambulance services. He tried selling the idea to many corporations in vain. They were uniform in their responses — "It does not make a sound business proposition." The doctor's wait for someone who would carry his idea forward ended when he met Jayakumar, managing director of Swajas Air Charters & Hotels.
The duo has launched Galaxy Rescue 999, a 24/7, anywhere-in-the-world air ambulance and evacuation service, which operates out of Chennai and Pondicherry. The group does not recommend hospitals, but just offers to transport the ailing from point A to point B in the shortest time possible, and provide a team of doctors who take care of the patient and are well equipped to handle medical emergencies that might arise during the journey. The company also offers evacuation and ambulance services by road, sea and rail, but their air ambulance service lends them the badge of pioneers.
The options
For air evacuation, Jayakumar offers two options — a charter or regular flight. A charter flight comes with a higher fee, but its doors are open to anyone with any kind of medical condition. Evacuation by a general flight is less expensive but the patient has to have control over bowel movements and can't be aggressive. General flights are off-limits for anyone who poses a threat to the safety of other passengers, because of aggressive behaviour deriving from severe mental disorder or any other condition.
Charter flights (generally, small six or nine-seater aircraft are used) have another advantage over a general flight. They can be gotten ready in about four hours, while general flights are subject to factors such as booking. Moreover, the air evacuation service provider has to give the general flight operator 48 hours' time to effect the necessary changes in a portion of the aircraft to address the special requirements of the patient and the team that attends on him (actually, general flight operators accomplish the task in 12 hours).
Rewarding experience
Most of the time, the patient has to undergo intense treatment during the journey itself. On one occasion, Dr. Sairamanan realised the futility of waiting for the aircraft to touch land before treatment could be started.
The patient was gasping for breath and the doctor performed tracheotomy on the flight and saved the man's life. On another, he aided a "mid-air childbirth" — the lady was being transported from a vessel off Bandar Aceh, where a separatist group was running amok at that time, to a hospital in Singapore. On the flight, Dr. Sairamanan noticed amniotic fluid coming out and realised that the cord was around the unborn child's neck. Through induced delivery, the suffering baby saw the light of day.
Charter flights make such emergency treatments easier. Thanks to greater space, it can take on board all the equipment required for the treatment of a particular condition and accommodate more number of medicos than a general flight could.
Charter flights offer a lot more of options — when Dr. Sairamanan tells Jayakumar the patient's condition, the latter decides on the aircraft. "When the evacuee has had a head injury, a six-seater is a bad idea.
While he is brought into the aircraft, his body would have to be folded or bent and this is not good news for his brain. In such cases, we bring in the bigger PC 12 or Dornier 228."
If the patient has to be evacuated out of a place that does not have a proper landing facility, a helicopter is made use of. Once, Dr. Sairamanan got a helicopter to toss out a sling so that a sailor, who was on the throes of death, could be strapped to it and evacuated. "The vessel did not have space even for a helicopter to touch down." This is a rare case and usually challenge comes in the form of an airport that does not have night landing facilities.
Says Sairamanan, "Air evacuation and ambulance operations are not a mid-summer's night dream, but the sense of fulfilment one experiences when the seemingly impossible comes to pass makes all the hard work well worth it."
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The insurance aspect
Air ambulance and evacuation may sound novel, but they are not. "In our country, the Army and the Navy have been doing this for over 50 years," says Dr. Sairamanan. "But this area of medical expertise has not been taken up with entrepreneurial zeal," says Jayakumar of Swajas Air Charters, which is part of the Galaxy Rescue 999 programme.
Dr. Sairamanan, who has master-minded many evacuations during stints with off-shore oil drilling companies, says the need for these services has always existed. But reluctance of medical insurance companies to cover such services has been a deterrent. "In the West, there is a separate air evacuation insurance, apart from medical insurance. In India, most insurance companies are not even aware of air evacuation," says the doctor, who is now trying to spread awareness about it among these companies. "You would not believe it, we had difficulty even insuring our medical equipment. Most of the insurance companies refused. Their logic — `the equipment is not lodged in one place and for this reason they can't be insured'."
Dr. Sairamanan says that air ambulance or evacuation is the best bet when it comes to reaching medical help within "the golden hours" and once the insurance companies pay attention to this aspect of medicare, many will opt for it.
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