Patient hurt as transfer goes wrong

A patient suffered serious injuries to his face and head during a mishap while he was being transferred from an air ambulance to a waiting ambulance at Hawke’s Bay Airport.

The man had been flown back to Napier by air ambulance on May 7 after undergoing surgery in Wellington.

Having safely disembarked the aircraft, he was injured when a lifting device toppled over as nurses transferred him to the road ambulance.

Stuff understands the man was being moved on a lifting device designed to carry stretchers, but also used for heavier patients who could not use the steps of the fixed-wing aircraft.

Something occurred as the lifting device was wheeled between the aircraft and the ambulance, which resulted in the man falling.

The man was returned to Wellington Hospital after the accident but died last week.

A Hawke’s Bay District Health Board spokeswoman said that its board was ‘‘conducting a formal review into the circumstances associated with an accident that occurred as a patient was being transferred to a road ambulance after safely disembarking from an air ambulance’’.

‘‘The DHB has been in regular contact with the family,’’ she added.

The patient’s death was referred to the coroner by Capital & Coast District Health Board. The spokeswoman would not say how the accident occurred.