Bengaluru woman with critical heart ailment airlifted from US to Chennai in 26 hours

The airlift reportedly cost the family $133,000 (a little over ₹1 crore). The family used an air ambulance flight service called ICATT that is Bengaluru-based and is equipped with an ICU.

A 67-year-old woman with a critical heart condition was airlifted from Portland in the United States to Chennai in a 26-hour long flight, which became one of the longest aero-medical evacuations to India.

A 67-year-old woman suffering of a critical heart condition was airlifted from Portland to Chennai in a 26-hour-flight which arrived on Tuesday. (Representative Image) (REUTERS)

According to a report, the woman could not be identified but that she was getting treated in Portland in that country.

However, her family, with whom she was staying in Oregon, decided to bring her to the Apollo hospital in Chennai for a heart surgery. The airlift cost the family $133,000 (a little over ₹1 crore), the report said. The family used an air ambulance flight service called ICATT that is Bengaluru-based and is equipped with an ICU.

The woman was transported to Chennai in two separate private jets, one from Portland to Istanbul, Turkey, and another from Istanbul to Chennai. The first private jet had a medical team on board, including three doctors and two paramedics. This jet took seven-and-a-half hours to fly from Portland to the Reykjavik airport in Iceland, where it took its first stop.

After refuelling, the flight took off to land in its second stop, Istanbul, Turkey, where all the medics and the aviation crew were replaced. A Bengaluru-based doctor who had travelled to the US and was present all the way to monitor the patient, stayed on, reports said.

Here, the woman was shifted to the second private jet, which departed from Istanbul to reach the third stop, Diyarbakir airport, also in Turkey, in four hours. After this, the jet took off to land in Chennai early on Tuesday. The patient was then immediately rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, where she is being prepped for surgery.

While reports quoted ICATT executives as saying that the treatment period in the US was longer and costing much more than airlifting the patient to India, it is also being said that the woman was having difficulty claiming health insurance as she was an Indian passport holder.

The patient is said to be a resident of Indiranagar, and was being treated at the Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland after developing a heart condition.