Complex cardiac evacuation from Shanghai

There were additional concerns about the quality of care he would receive in that location, as well as continuity of care once he returned to the UK. The only way forward was for the patient to be flown back to England and await a transplant in his home country.

This was a significant level of difficulty to this case as the patient’s state of health was very precarious. He had been fitted with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), a mechanical pump which assists the heart in pumping blood throughout the body. In order to undertake such a long flight, he would also need to be placed on extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a technology that allows the blood to be oxygenated outside the body instead of passing through the lungs. This was a huge technical challenge for such a long-distance air ambulance transfer.

The Healix team contacted a UK cardiac transplant team and secured agreement to have their patient retrieval team undertake this transfer. This team of clinicians is typically only involved in patient moves within the United Kingdom—to have them travel all the way to China was very unusual. The team of seven nurses, doctors and perfusionists flew to Shanghai with the necessary equipment. Upon arrival at the Shanghai hospital, they were able to assess the patient and discuss the case in detail with the treating medical team.

The next day, a Challenger air ambulance aircraft chartered by Healix arrived in Shanghai with additional medical equipment. The day after that, the patient was stabilised on ECMO and transferred to the airport via ITU ambulance. He was then flown in the Challenger all the way back to the UK.

The patient remained stable for the duration of the lengthy transfer under the care of the transplant retrieval team. He went on to have a successful heart transplant in England.