Initially therefore we sent the Medical Director to the receiving country
to investigate and report on local clinics able to accept this difficult case, and also to examine the family home to recommend
what needed to be done there. Local agents had also to be engaged and briefed. Costs had to estimated and negotiated.
Then the necessary equipment had to be sourced, procured and sent prior
to the arrival of the patient; none were available in country. Fully manoeuverable bed, airflow mattess, electric wheelchair,
ventilator and generator, among other items, were shipped.
The patient was repatriated by air ambulance to a suitable receiving
clinic, where he could be assessed and cared for while the family home was changed and adapted; a third storey appartment
without elevator was hardly suitable.
Local doctors and hospital had to be signed up to the long term care.
Finally, after 18 months in country, a very eminent neurologist
from the UK (who had no prior knowledge of the patient) was sent to see the patient and make an assesssment
before a final financial and practical settlement could be made.
Conclusion:
This was of course one of the more complicated and long lasting cases
that we have had to deal with, but illustrates some of the matters which have to be considered when repatriating and rehabilitating
a severely disabled patient in a country where the medical facilities are not as sophisticated or easily procured as
some.
