Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jul-Aug;41(4):396-401.
doi: 10.1016/j.amj.2021.12.007. Epub 2022 Jan 10.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Pandemic: Chilean Air Force Experience in the Air Transport of Critically Ill Patients-The First 100 Cases

Gino La Rosa  1 , Xabier de Aretxabala  2 , Terry Martin  3 , Julio Barreto  3 , Victor Aguilera  4 , Max Wanner  2 , Pablo Gonzalez  5 , Gonzalo Suarez  4 , Viviana Leiva  2 , Miguel Herve  6
Affiliations
Review

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Pandemic: Chilean Air Force Experience in the Air Transport of Critically Ill Patients-The First 100 Cases

Gino La Rosa et al. Air Med J. 2022 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

Objective: Critical care air transport has played an important role during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The goal of this article is to analyze results and lessons learned from the evacuation of the first 100 COVID-19 patients transported between medical facilities in Chile.

Methods: We reviewed prospective data of patients who were referred for air transport between March 27, 2020, and July 9, 2020.

Results: Of 115 referred patients, 100 were transported by air. All patients were intubated and mechanically ventilated. Hypertension, diabetes, and obesity were the most commonly observed comorbidities. Our service did not experience any major problems in patient care en route or among the crewmembers. We did not observe any severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections among our flight team members during the study period. Twelve (12%) patients died at their destination intensive care unit, whereas the remaining 88 patients (88%) returned to their primary hospitals after recovery.

Conclusions: Air transport of mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19 infection has been shown to be a safe way of transport, with no in-flight deaths and an in-hospital mortality of 12%, which compares favorably with the in-hospital mortality of similar patients who did not undergo air transport.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Zone distribution in Lockheed Hercules C-130.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Zone distribution in Black Hawk UH-60 helicopter.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Isolation Chamber.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dong E, Du H, Gardner L. An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20:533–534. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Singh JM, MacDonald RD, Bronskill SE, Schull MJ. Incidence and predictors of critical events during urgent air-medical transport. CMAJ. 2009;181:579–584. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wilcox SR, Saia MS, Waden H, et al. Improved oxygenation after transport in patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure. Air Med J. 2015;34:369–376. - PubMed
    1. Beckmann U, Gillies DM, Berenholtz SM, Wu AW, Pronovost P. Incidents relating to the intra-hospital transfer of critically ill patients. An analysis of the reports submitted to the Australian Incident Monitoring Study in Intensive Care. Intensive Care Med. 2004;30:1579–1585. - PubMed
    1. Evans A, Winslow EH. Oxygen saturation and hemodynamic response in critically ill, mechanically ventilated adults during intrahospital transport. Am J Crit Care. 1995;4:106–111. - PubMed