Evacuation of a patient with a regular spinal injury

While traveling in Albania in July 2019, a tourist, a citizen of Belarus, suffered a spinal injury. Savitar Group medical service desk registered an insured event and organized first aid for him on spot. The patient had suffered from limbs movement restriction, and therefore her medical evacuation back home-required medical escort using a stretcher module.

Airlines that could provide stretchers on board flew only from Skopje - the capital of Macedonia. Keeping this in mind our evacuation desk arranged an interstate ground ambulance transportation from Tirana to Skopje and a medical escort on transit flight from Istanbul to Minsk.

The evacuation of the patient was going according to the initial plan – until the border between Albania and Macedonia. However, border services delayed the paperwork of documents that allows Belarusian citizen to enter Macedonia. Time was lost and the team did not manage to fly in time. So the whole medical transportation was delayed and put under threat.

To solve the situation our desk managed to reach the consul of Belarus in Macedonia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia. Permission to enter Macedonia was finally obtained, but evacuation could be carried out only on the next flight date.

For the period of solving the paperwork issues, the patient was placed in a private hospital in the capital of Macedonia. Temporary accommodation was also arranged for the medical team. Our company took in charge the unforeseen expenses.

After observation of all formalities, the patient was safely escorted to Minsk, Belarus.