23.06.2020

Emergency
GVA specialists organized a medical repatriation of a sailor after heart surgery from France to Philippines.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a patient was disembarked from the vessel in the South of France. The examination in the local medical facility revealed the need for urgent cardiac surgery. The cardiology specialty hospital’s physicians saved the life of the patient and he went for a post-surgery period. In a matter of a few weeks, he was fit to return home to the Philippines where his loved ones were waiting for him. But the global pandemic adjusted the family plans: the patient could not fly alone because he still needed a medical escort that in the times of the pandemic is nearly impossible to arrange. Another challenge was the only available, but quite complicated route with multiple connections on the ground and in airports.

Several days passed before the employers called GVA with the medical repatriation request. Just one call needed to activate the standard GVA COVID19 protocol for patients stranded far from their home countries. The hard work of the GVA crisis response team together with numerous administrations in several countries made the medical repatriation by a commercial carrier the fait accompli.

In was another strong response by GVA to COVID19 constraints around the Globe. The patient safely landed in Manila on June 20 met by the receiving medical team in stable condition.

Recently GVA assisted with an urgent repatriation of a sailor from Greece to Russia and organized the evacuation of the crew of a Russian dry cargo ship from South Africa.