Source: HeliDrive saves infant on maiden flight from Vic Falls – herald
Rutendo Nyeve
Victoria Falls Bureau
Presidential Air Ambulance service, Helidrive Zimbabwe, started operations from the resort city of Victoria Falls on Friday, airlifting a critically-ill three-day-old infant from Hwange to Bulawayo.
The Victoria Falls service comes after the opening of Harare and Bulawayo branches.
The flight marked the commencement of services from the newly revamped, state-of-the-art helipad at Victoria Falls District Hospital.
For years, residents and tourists in the region faced a terrifying reality of either enduring the 435km Bulawayo-Victoria Falls road or a medical emergency meant waiting over four hours for a helicopter to arrive from Bulawayo or Harare.
That wait has now been slashed to just 2 hours from Victoria Falls or Hwange to Bulawayo which has the major referal hospitals.
The service is not only a two-hour life-saving boost for patients, but a seismic advantage for Zimbabwe’s premier tourism hub.
With HeliDrive now permanently based in the resort city, international tourists are guaranteed world-class emergency medical evacuation services, addressing a long-standing industry concern.
HeliDrive Zimbabwe, a Government-subsidised service that provides air medical transport completely free of charge to patients, had previously operated solely from Bulawayo and Harare.
On Friday, at about 10am, the new base proved its worth.
The crew received a distress call from Hwange about a three-day-old suffering from neonatal sepsis.
Within minutes, the Victoria Falls-based chopper was airborne.
Shortly after the successful mission, Zimpapers caught up with Chief Pilot Vadim Vagapov at the Victoria Falls District Hospital helipad.
“Before we were in Harare, then we moved to Bulawayo. Now we have two helicopters in Harare, two in Bulawayo, and started a new base in Victoria Falls,” said Chief Pilot Vagapov.
“The medical crew, pilots, and technicians are full-time and will be here. We are covering the Victoria Falls area. Most of our flights will be flown to Bulawayo from here, and we can also pick up lots of patients from Hwange. Before opening this base, to pick up a patient from Hwange or from Victoria Falls was taking two hours, even more, two and a half hours just to get here.
“Now, we can launch a helicopter immediately. From here to Hwange in 20 minutes. This way, we can improve our medical operations and save more lives in Zimbabwe.”
He reiterated the service’s free mandate.
“I would like to remind that HeliDrive Zimbabwe works moving patients for free. There is no charge. We are Government-subsidised, and all patients can be moved to a better facility without charging them,” he said.
Ekaterina Balandina, a medical consultant and anaesthesiologist/intensive care specialist, explained the clinical significance of the new base.
“Today we stated and had a first case from Hwange: a three-day-old baby who suffered from neonatal sepsis. We successfully transferred this baby to Bulawayo to improve his treatment. It takes for us only 20 minutes to go to Hwange. Before this time, patients needed to wait for two hours for our Bulawayo team to pick them up. In our service, we have the ‘golden hour.’
“The faster we transfer patients to a hospital with more special facilities, the better the outcome.”
The atmosphere at the district hospital was electric. Residents who had gathered to witness the helipad’s activation expressed overwhelming relief.
“We have lost some of our people while being transported to Bulawayo through road ambulances. To see a patient fly out in a few hours gives us hope that our relatives will live,” said Ms Memory Ncube, a local Victoria Falls resident.
Mr Thabani Dube described the development as a game changer.
“This is a game-changer for tourism, too. Tourists were afraid of getting sick here. Now, with HeliDrive on the ground, we can tell the world that Victoria Falls is safe,” he said.
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