Repatriation of a baby

Overview

In Dakar, Senegal – a new-born was in urgent need of surgery for an acute condition. 

Problem

Any surgical treatment of a month-old baby is challenging – but this case was made significantly more so, in Africa. 

After the first call into our Assistance Centre, we established the immediate need to repatriate the baby. To best prevent the possible loss of life, we prepared two plans. 

The first was to activate the air ambulance for urgent evacuation to Europe. In parallel, the second was to support the local medical team to find a local surgical solution. We translated this to all stakeholders – including, and importantly – to the Insurance Doctor who accepted the possible costs should the air ambulance be late in cancelling.

As no acceptable local solution could be found we continued with the air ambulance evacuation.  

Impact

The mission went extremely well, ending up with the baby benefiting from urgent surgery upon arrival in Lyon. The parents were reassured and the client was very satisfied.