A plane from the Aeroevacuation Medical Unit (UMAER) of the Air and Space Army that is going to repatriate the Basque patient with necrotizing pancreatitis in Thailand will depart around 5:00 p.m. this afternoon from the Torrejón de Ardoz air base (Madrid). ) heading to Bangkok. This has been confirmed in statements to the media by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who has assured that it is a “very difficult air evacuation” and “one of the most difficult trips that can be made.”
Five doctors and four military nurses will be on the plane “absolutely prepared to ensure the transfer of this person so that he can return home,” said Robles. The patient, Alexander García Galas, 36, from San Sebastián, is admitted to the ICU of the Samitivej Hospital in Bangkok, the Thai capital, and, according to his family, his condition is “critical.”
The preparation of the plane has been complicated because it has to meet a series of medical requirements “but a great effort is being made to support the family and we hope that everything goes very well,” he confided. The minister has assured that she has been in constant contact with the patient’s family since the Defense became aware of the situation and three days ago launched the evacuation operation “as is always done when a Spanish citizen needs help, there is the Army of the Air and Space and military health”.
After two frustrated repatriation attempts in the more than a month that he has been admitted, one through insurance on a regular airline and another on a medical plane hired by his relatives, the family spokesperson, his cousin Janire Galas, requested the last Monday to the Ministry of Defense the intervention of the UMAER.
That same day, the family had received a report from the Thai hospital in which it was explained to them that, despite their “critical” situation, it would still be 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 so “as quickly as possible because there is a risk of severe internal bleeding.”
