African case study: Emergency evacuation to Nairobi

We were notified that a 13 year old girl, travelling with her parents in Uganda, had been admitted to hospital in Kampala and was dangerously unwell with a mystery illness.  The case was immediately passed to one of our doctors, who telephoned the treating doctor in Africa.  It was established that the girl had kidney failure and was getting worse.  The cause of the illness was unknown and the hospital treating her had limited facilities.

Within one hour of receiving the case, an evacuation plan was made.  Our medical team thought it may be feasible to move her to her home town of Birmingham by air ambulance as long as her condition didn’t worsen.  If she became too unstable to be flown to London, then she would be moved to Nairobi, a city which has the best medical care in East Africa.  We liaised with medical teams at both Nairobi Hospital and Birmingham Childrens’ Hospital to warn them of the situation. 
Within hours of receiving the case, an air ambulance was dispatched from Nairobi and a medical team was with the patient.  She was getting worse fast; the air ambulance team discussed the case with our doctor in London and it was decided to admit the patient to Nairobi Hospital.  Immediately on arrival, she was given life-saving dialysis.  Medical tests (unavailable in Uganda) ruled out malaria and confirmed the diagnosis as haemolytic uraemic syndrome.  She remained in intensive care for several days, during which time her progress was carefully monitored by our doctors in London. 

After a week, her condition was stable, although she still required kidney dialysis.  One of our doctors flew to Kenya from London in order to accompany her home on a direct scheduled flight.  She  was then transferred from Heathrow to Birmingham Childrens’ Hospital by ambulance for ongoing treatment for kidney failure.  After just a few days, she was well enough to return home and is now back at school.