Meet UAE nurse who travels the world transporting Covid-19 patients
UAE RESIDENT TRAVELS THE WORLD TRANSPORTING CORONAVIRUS-AFFECTED PEOPLE IN AN AIR AMBULANCE
Karen James is the girl next door in Abu Dhabi who goes for epic journeys around the world, bringing back home Covid-19 patients from war zones, remote locations and high-risk countries in an isolation unit on board an air ambulance.
“I’m here to take you home,” she tells her patients when she meets them, words that can mean the world to someone on a ventilator.
The 37-year-old British National is a critical-care flight nurse aboard a fully ICUequipped air-ambulance private jet aircraft. She transports Covid-19 patients on portable isolation unit air ambulance transport missions (called the EpiShuttle) on behalf of governments, international agencies, insurance companies and private clients.
Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, Karen has clocked on an average more than 25 hours on each EpiShuttle mission, and has been to locations around the world.
“I have flown over war zones in Afghanistan and high-risk countries such as Somalia… I have frankly lost count,” says Karen. Her company, FAI renta-jet AG, has its fleet based at its headquarters at Albrecht Dürer International Airport in Nuremberg, Germany, and operates a branch office in Dubai.
COMPLEX LOGISTICS
A normal day in Karen’s life with back-to-back missions is nothing like we on the ground can imagine. It involves, for example, flying a patient from UK to Australia, then a pickup in Korea to the UAE and then maybe again a pick-up
in the UAE and a drop off in Spain. “On March 24, I was allocated to a mission from Abu Dhabi and I haven’t been home since then. We have flown patient after patient endlessly during this pandemic and it has been the most challenging getting from point A to B with border closures, restriction of fuel stops and permit issues.”
The logistics of planning flights, especially in Covid-19 times, with many countries imposing border closures and restrictions, have been more complex than the actual caring of the patient, says Karen. “On many occasions we have not been able to disembark
in some countries or perform overnight stays. So, we had to use larger aircraft with more flight crews in order to perform turn-around missions or plan completely different flight routes in order to make an air ambulance flight happen. Some countries even stopped allowing fuel stops which made some missions difficult to execute,” she explains.
Karen moved to the UAE couple of years ago in pursuit of travel and the country seemed a perfect location to fulfil her passion. Her background as an emergency nurse helped her find a job in a trauma centre and then there was an opportunity to become a flight nurse with FAI rent-a-jet AG.
As a fixed-wing flight nurse on an air ambulance Karen is responsible for providing a bed-to-bed service to her patients. “The patients we transport are usually critically ill, requiring ventilator management, they might even need a special vasoactive medication to stabilise their condition. We assist with the stabilisation of the patient pre-flight. As a flight nurse I have to be prepared for anything, for instance ‘do I have enough oxygen to care for my patient for a period of 20 hours, how much does the patient weigh and how to load a patient inside an aircraft?’ These are critical issues to be considered.”
CHALLENGES
Karen is proud to have completed many successful Covid-19 missions since March.
“There are times when their conditions can deteriorate midflight and we feel challenged professionally. It requires a lot of determination, quick thinking and team work between the medical crew on each mission,” says Karen.
“I remember one case where we received a highly critical patient who was not stable at handover at the airport. He was only 21 and had his young family on board the aircraft. The transportation was from the Middle East to Europe, we were on the brink of aborting the mission but we delivered extensive intensive care for more than an hour prior to take-off and managed to stabilise him enough to transport him to Europe for a life-saving operation.”
Despite all the challenges, Karen is filled with gratitude to still be flying during this pandemic with full exposure to Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and access to medical equipment of the highest standards.
“My nursing friends globally report increased number of patients to care for with shortages of equipment and PPE supply. I have learnt all I can do is stay positive and hopeful and keep flying.”
“Whenever I touch down in the UAE with a patient, I have to stay in a transit hotel at the airport and depart again with the aircraft. Only once my Tawajudi approval has come through, I can come back to the UAE and stay outside the airport. Living out of a small suitcase, changing overnight accommodation nearly every day and flying around the world without being home in between hasn’t been easy,” admits Karen.
But her strength comes from caring patients at their most vulnerable and in their darkest hours.
It brings a greater perspective of my current situation. I’m proud to call myself a flight nurse during this time and hope I can return home very soon.”
Karen James | Critical-care flight nurse