The medical plane sent by the Ministry of Defense to repatriate a seriously ill Basque citizen, whose life is in danger, left Bangkok this Sunday at 08:55 local time (01:55 GMT) towards Bilbao.
As sources close to the evacuation device informed EFE this Sunday, the plane left the Don Mueang civil airport, in Bangkok, with the patient's mother and sister-in-law on board.
The same sources indicated that the patient was stable at the time of takeoff of the plane, in which 24 people traveled from Spain on Saturday, including five doctors and four military nurses, as explained on Friday by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles.
Robles plans to receive the Aeroevacuation Medical Unit (Umaer) at the Torrejón air base today at 8 p.m., after the plane has previously left the patient in Bilbao after a flight lasting about 12 hours.
The convalescent, who had to be admitted to the ICU in Thailand due to his severity and already tried to return to Spain by other means on two occasions without success, will be admitted to the Cruces hospital, in the Biscayan town of Barakaldo.
It is a "very difficult air evacuation," as Robles acknowledged in statements to the media this Friday when he announced the repatriation.
The Spanish citizen is suffering from severe pancreatitis, and given the difficulties they have had in repatriating him, his family asked the Spanish Government for help because he is in imminent danger of death, according to doctors.
The patient, Álex García Galas, 36, was admitted to the ICU of the Samitivej Hospital in Bangkok (Thailand), a country to which he traveled a little over a month ago with his wife, after, before traveling, the The doctor who treated him in Spain told him that the discomfort he was suffering was due to "gas" and that he had "nothing."
Once in the Asian country, where the couple went with an insurance policy, the man began to "feel bad," so he was hospitalized with "30% necrotizing pancreatitis of biliary origin," according to what his family told EFE. cousin and family spokesperson, Janire Galas.
After a month, the insurance made a first attempt at repatriation through a regular airline, accompanied by a doctor, although the trip was frustrated because, when going to board, the pilot did not allow it because he was "vomiting", After which he was admitted to a second hospital, the Samitivej in Bangkok, where he was also diagnosed with pneumonia among other complications.
His situation was "getting worse" until he suffered a "cardiac arrest" that forced him to be intubated and his relatives contacted the insurance company to request that he be repatriated in an air ambulance, to which the company responded that this possibility "was not contemplated in the policy", despite the fact that, according to Galas, a section appears in this document with the phrase "unlimited repatriation".
Finally, given the "worsening" of the situation, the family made the "effort" to hire a private air ambulance with two doctors who went to Thailand to see the patient.
The affected person arrived at the airport, where those in charge of the second private repatriation attempt carried out a check-up that determined that he needed 30 liters of oxygen, when the hospital report reflected that he needed four, so they decided to break the contract, not transfer him and return him. to hospital.
Subsequently, the patient's relatives received a report from the hospital in which it was clarified that it was still possible for the patient to be repatriated if it was done on a medical plane, although they were warned that he should "fly now" and that he should do it "as quickly as possible because there is a risk of severe internal bleeding."
The report also warns that necrotizing pancreatitis has increased "from 30% to 50%" and that "the antibiotics they are using no longer do anything."
Given this situation, the family requested repatriation through the Air Evacuation Medical Unit of the Air Force.
