Medevac services in Kenya

Medevac services in Kenya.
Kenya has a vivid geographical condition. It’s coastal line comprises of the Indian Ocean, Kenya's flat land rises into central highlands. The highlands are divided by the Great Rift Valley; this divides Kenya down the length of the entire country. Kenya's geography is rich with flat arid plains, steep cliffs, slopes, deserts, and in some areas farmland which are very fertile.
Kenya has numerous water bodies including lakes and rivers. To the far south there are lakes namely Lake Baringo, Bogoria,  Nakuru,  Elementaita, Naivasha, and Magadi.
Tana river, the 440-mile water body is the longest river in Kenya. The river rises to the west of Nyeri in the Aberdare Mountains , then eventually meets the Indian Ocean at Formosa Bay.
The Tana is the longest river stretches about 621 miles entirely within Kenya. The country is one of the 11 countries which sharies the waters of the Nile River. The highlands of Kenya  provide catchment areas for the country's abundant rivers. The  rivers are of great ecological value because of the rich flora and fauna they support along their course.
The River Tana from the Aberdare Mountains to the Indian Ocean. The River Delta supports habitat in this region. Larger population settlement is observed in these regions due to the scope of fishing, irrigation, fishing and hydroelectric power generation stations located here. Since past so many years, the river has been significant for fishing and as a water source. The river is severely vulnerable due to deforestation, agricultural projects, random development of housing buildings, tourism infrastructure projects which continues to cause sedimentation in the river . The river is inadequately protected against these threats and conservation is done on a small scale. This poses a severe threat of floods in Kenya. The most populated capital city too is not left untouched by the floods and the severity of floods witnessed by the country is enormous.
In 2018, constant heavy rainfall in the months of March and April caused dams and rivers in East African nation parts to overflow, which led to the sinking of crops and washing out homes. More than 186 death casualties were reported and more than 300,000 others were forced to leave their homes. The rainfall is the highest recorded in the last 50 years. About 150,000 people were displaced and had to reside in camps.
The floods severely damaged the infrastructural facilities such as roads, bridges and schools, it also submerged several hectares of farmland and killed thousands of cattles and livestock.
Lack of clean drinking, waterShortage of food, and poor sanitation in the camps also resulted in a cholera outbreak affecting 300 people.Children were severely affected.
A number of roads, including the Kanjama-Kiriaini, Embu-Meru road County, were temporarily blocked due to mudslides, leaving motorists stranded.  Kangema, sub-county, residents were forced to evacuate their houses after they were destroyed by landslides.
Due to the severe flood condition, there was a lack of accessibility to the roadways and people were stranded for days in the camps in a highly congested condition. Due to improper conditions of living, lack of hygiene and sanitation children were the worst sufferers of the infection. Health-care facilities were also not easily accessible in such condition. Some pregnant women were also residing in these camps and the unhealthy living condition in the camps was not favorable for them.

What is Cholera?
Cholera is an infectious disease which is caused due to eating food or drinking water which is contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio Cholerea. Mostly Cholera spreads in the region which has poor sanitation, lack of hygiene, war zones and alum areas whereby there is no proper drainage and sewage facilities. Common places where the disease is still prevalent are parts of Africa, Latin America and South East Asia.

Causes of Cholera:
Mostly the bacterium Vibrio Cholerea, is found in the feces of the person infected with the disease and it spreads through the food and water contaminated with the disease, where there is poor sanitation condition.
Other causes are listed below:

• Supply water contaminated with the bacteria.
• Ice which is made from the contaminated water.
• Foods and drinks sold on the street contaminated with the bacteria
• Vegetables are grown in the water containing human feces contaminated with the infection.
• Under-cooked or Raw fish and seafood caught in waters polluted with sewage.

What happens when Cholera Infection spreads?
The following symptoms are observed when a person suffers from the disease:
The symptoms are developed within a few hours or it may even develop within five days.

• Severe dehydration accompanied by vomiting.
• Rapid heart beat.
• Losening of the skin.
• Muscle cramps are developed.
• Constant feeling of thirst.
• Low blood pressure is developed.

The outbreak of the disease was severe and many people including kids and women were suffering from the disease. Few pregnant women were also in the camp and they were at high risk to get infected. The government of Kenya took a decision to relocate the emergency patients,specially the kids to the private hospitals in Mombosa and Kisumu for getting faster measures against the spread of the infection. The major challenge was that the roads were inaccessible and few roads those were still open would have taken a long and hectic transportation procedure.
Hereby, a call was taken to extend help from the Air Ambulance services. The Hi-Flying team has years of experience to expatriate patient from Kenya to other countries and they have also transited the patient within Kenya. The team is well qualified and their Air Ambulance facilities are well equipped with all the necessary equipment in place.
The team laid down an evacuation plan whereby it was decided that Medevac facilities be used for the deportation of such patients to the destination health-care facilities.Medical evacuation of the child along with the mother was planned using an Air Ambulance flight like a Learjet Gulfstream or Citation jet. The evacuation process took place in a well equipped and safe environment. The patient is accommodated in a specially fitted stretcher, the stretcher is secured to the cabin floor like passenger seats, with mattress, linens, pillows, blankets and safety restraint etc. All the equipment have internal batteries as back-up. In the base of the stretcher there are 7000 liters of oxygen supply, vacuum suction, and air compressor to blend air with oxygen in the ventilator and the electrical inverter to supply electrical power to all life saving medical equipment. All medical equipment have internal batteries as back-up.
The Medevac team comprised of a doctor and a nurse. Several rounds were made for patient expatriation from Nairobi to Mombosa and all the patients were safely transfered to the destination hospital.
The rescue operation lasted for about 24 hours with several jets being flown at regular intervals.The distance required for road transportation is about 7-8 hours from Nairobi to Mombasa for a one-way trip. Whereas, the Air ambulance service took less than an hour.
The child patients were safely expatriated on priority along with a parent and parallel  evacuation of critical and pregnant women was also done. The entire process was timed perfectly for the flying and deporting of the patient.
The flood days are just in the memories of the people as a dark page in history but they do also remember the good and fond memories of their expatriation procedure and are thanking Hi-Flying for their great efforts and teamwork.