At Jet Companion’s office in Canada, one PA’s dilemma in particular sounds very familiar: “We are booking an international trip for a client, with severe health issues. He doesn’t need an air ambulance, but he definitely can’t fly alone with his medical needs!”
As a provider of travel companions for hire and low-complexity aeromedical care, we are often able to take the stress out of the situation. Our so called “commercial medical escorts” are in fact professional flight nurses. They are trained to care for individuals onboard commercial flights and private charters.
Whether these passengers are considered “Fit to Fly”, or denied boarding, often depends on this type of arrangement.
Medical emergency
Thirty times a day, somewhere in the world, an in-flight medical emergency is declared. It’s not surprising as more travellers are 80+ or have serious pre-existing conditions like dementia or cancer.
There are also more ultra-long-haul flights. Nevertheless, many of these high-risk travellers will arrive at the airport unprepared. Preparing can be as simple as having a trained set of eyes onboard who is able to recognize small issues, before they ever escalate. It buys you the best chance of a seamless trip even when you are flying with medical needs.
Variety of care needs
We see travellers with a broad range of conditions ranging from permanent disability after a stroke, or severe anxiety after a mental health crisis, or people who suffered a complication after surgery overseas. Some missions are time sensitive. Others are planned well in advance, like in the case of an elderly expat who is transferred to a long term care facility, closer to family.
The degree of assistance can vary. When we say that we specialize in low-complexity medical travel, we mean that we transport people who are capable of flying safely on a commercial aircraft if we manage for example their incontinence, or their dementia. For these cases we don’t need to send an ICU-nurse with critical care gear. That also greatly reduces the cost of a mission. We are however licensed professionals, practicing to our full scope. So things like in-flight oxygen, symptom relief drugs and a stretcher onboard a commercial plane, can be easily arranged. People who were previously considered too sick to travel to a wellness retreat or a specialized treatment centre, now have more options.
Wing-to-wing, bed-to-bed
No two missions are the same. Airport-to-airport transfers are common, for example in the case of a young adult who is brought to an addiction treatment centre overseas. Our nurse meets the family at check-in, and at the final destination someone else will be waiting. Later that week, that same nurse will take a cab and travel 300 kilometres across an international border to pick up an elderly client in a nursing home. Together they’ll travel 300 kilometres back to the airport in an ambulance, before boarding a transpacific flight. Around the same time, but in a different continent, one of our nurses will be doing a wing-to-wing transfer of a patient who is arriving on a private jet, and leaving on a commercial flight an hour later.
Rudy de Kort, is a flight nurse and the founder of Jet Companion, a Canadian provider of professional travel companions and commercial medical escorts. His team flies worldwide.
Contact Jet Companion at operations@jet-companion.com for a quote for your mission.
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