Demand for medical repatriation flights to Europe from postings in Africa are growing with European Air Ambulance (EAA) reporting a successful conclusion to a recent "exceptional" mission.

A three month old girl, suffering from a life-threatening illness, had to be flown from Burundi to a clinic in Hanover for medical treatment with dispatchers of the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Rheinmuenster organising the aviation and medical logistics.

Patrick Schomaker, EAA director of sales and marketing, says that the daughter of a German family seemed in good health after being born but later caught an infection. "Due to the difficult medical situation in Africa, no paediatrician was available to make an exact diagnosis. As the condition of the child became dramatically worse, medical treatment in Germany was urgent."

The baby was repatriated on a Luxembourg Air Rescue (LAR) Learjet 35A ambulance accompanied by a paediatrician from the Children's Clinic of Mannheim, a paramedic of the DRF Luftrettung and an intensive care nurse from LAR.

The MCC checked flight-relevant information and then the dispatchers organised overfly and landing permits before the Learjet 35A left Luxembourg with the five crew members. The 10-hour flight involved two fuel stops in Djerba, Tunisia, and N'Djamena, Chad. The crew arrived in Burundi the following day and the medical crew was picked up from the airport and transported directly to the parents' house. "The paediatrician and the paramedic from the DRF Luftrettung found a very weak, dehydrated infant suffering from an infection," says Schomaker. "Infusions were given and vital functions monitored. Without the infant's medical stabilisation the repatriation to Germany would not have been possible."

The paediatrician said that a cardiac defect could not be excluded after a first examination. The medical crew kept the physician in the clinic in Hanover in constant touch about the baby's condition so that appropriate arrangements could be made ready for the arrival in Hanover.

The baby's mother accompanied her daughter on the flight and the MCC arranged an immediate transfer by an ambulance to the clinic where the baby underwent heart surgery.