While we hope you and your loved ones never require this list, keeping it handy might not be a bad idea during these times. Should the situation arise, contact these air ambulances in India for a journey towards recovery. By Bayar Jain
1. ICATT
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Widely regarded as one of the best in the country, the ICATT air ambulance is owned and led by a team of doctors with 14 years of experience in aeromedicine. Boasting of professionals who’ve trained at the National Health Service (NHS), ICATT provides trauma emergency response and organ retrievals; neonatal and paediatric transportations; disaster management; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), High-Risk Obstetrics, and planned air transfers. Each service comes with one or two doctors and a technician or paramedic to assist the doctor on board, along with a complete ICU setup with invasive cardiac monitoring and ECMO machines, if required.
Locations: Although based out of Bengaluru, ICATT provides round-the-clock services across the country for domestic and international medical needs.
2. Apollo Hospitals
An established name in India’s private healthcare facilities, Apollo Hospitals provides its services mid-air as well. The multi-speciality hospitals provide air ambulances that come coupled with a full-fledged medical crew that is trained in critical pre-hospital care protocols. For a rounded service, these ambulances ferry patients to the nearest Apollo Hospital for immediate care from the closest landing zone.
Locations: Although launched in Delhi and Bengaluru, Apollo Hospitals’ air ambulance services today extend to Madurai, Mysore, Kakinada, Karaikudi, Karur, Tiruchirappalli and Visakhapatnam.
3. India Air Ambulance
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With each flight staffed with an experienced medical team, comprising at least one physician and a nurse, India Air Ambulance assures intensive care level medical support for every patient, courtesy specialised medical equipment and medically-trained personals. This air ambulance service relies on commercial airlines, chartered planes or helicopters to ferry patients in emergencies. Their multi-pronged services range from medical site surveys, repatriation of mortal remains, assistance to organ transplant patients, remote site medical cover, and more.
Locations: India Air Ambulance extends its services throughout the country, as well as worldwide.
4. Medanta
Medanta’s air ambulance services are designed to provide one with “an ICU at 30,000 feet.” Aiming to eliminate geographical barriers, these flying doctors—as they call themselves—are equipped with advanced cardiac life support systems. Moreover, not only are their doctors and nurses trained in trauma and medical evacuations, but are also capable of undertaking emergency procedures, if needed. The biggest allure of this air ambulance is the 90-minute activation time (that is, time taken to action any flights post receiving any calls)—self-claimed as the lowest in India.
Locations: Medanta’s Air Ambulance is capable of both domestic and international medical evacuations.
Editor’s Note: Keeping the current situation of the pandemic in mind, T+L India recommends every reader to stay safe, and take all government-regulated precautions in case travel at this time is absolutely necessary. Please follow our stories on COVID-19 for all the latest travel guidelines.
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