France evacuates eight Covid-19 patients from Polynesia to the metropolis
An Airbus A350 of the Air Caraïbes company flew from Papeete this Saturday, September 18 to transfer eight patients sick with Covid-19 to Paris.
AFP - SULIANE FAVENNEC
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In France, eight Covid-19 patients are traveling more than 17,000 kilometers to be taken care of in a Paris hospital.
An unprecedented patient transfer, between French Polynesia, in the middle of the South Pacific, and the metropolis.
The eight patients, placed in intensive care for severe form, left Saturday noon, Paris time, from Papeete,
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Never before has a medical evacuation taken care of so many patients over such a long distance.
This is a world first, which required the transformation of an Airbus A350 from Air Caraïbes, into a flying resuscitation service.
Nearly 35 caregivers are on board, with two tons of equipment to keep patients in an artificial coma and try to reproduce the conditions of a hospital.
After the first 12 hours of flight, the aircraft should land this Sunday in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, French territory in the Caribbean.
This stopover is necessary because the 18 cylinders of 60,000 liters of oxygen each, must be replaced.
The A350 will then take the direction of Paris.
An essential evacuation
The operation is obviously not without risk, but if the number of hospitalizations has fallen in recent days in Polynesia, the intensive care unit of the hospital center remains under great strain.
For the president of the community, this evacuation is essential for the survival of other patients.
These eight patients could not be hospitalized in a closer French territory.
Nearly 130 patients from the West Indies and Reunion Island have been, for the same reasons, evacuated in recent weeks to the metropolis.
►Also read: Patient transfers: large-scale logistics to be put in place in France
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