SA Mercy Flight Risks Trip into War-Torn Yemen to Save Baby

A month-old baby in dire need of heart surgery in the war-torn country of Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula has been evacuated by a South African mercy flight and flown 16,000 kilometres to safety and surgery after other countries were unwilling to risk going into the area.

A team of South African medical aviation evacuation specialists had to find a way to safely evacuate Yazan Yousif Qade and his mother from Yemen, where he could not obtain medical treatment, according to a statement released by Netcare 911 on Monday.

The air ambulance landed at Lanseria International Airport on 12 February and the baby went directly to Netcare Sunninghill Hospital for the heart surgery. Yazan, who suffers from a life-threatening congenital coarctation of the aorta, which is the narrowing of the large blood vessel branching from the heart, underwent an emergency procedure that very afternoon.

“When we were approached by Alliance International Medical Services (AIMS) to take on this medical evacuation, we were told that our counterparts in other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and European nations, were unwilling to undertake this highly complex mission,” said Bruce Johnstone, chief executive of Medair. “Despite the difficult and dangerous situation, Netcare 911 and its medical aviation partner, Medair, felt compelled to help as it was made clear to us that we were Yazan’s last hope.”

Netcare 911 chief operating officer, Craig Grindell, said AIMS South Africa felt that Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg was the best-placed facility to provide the highly specialised cardiac care that the baby needed. The flight had to cross the airspace of 10 countries, which took a lot of planning. The Hawker 800 also needed to land in Bisha, Saudi Arabia, for inspection both on its way to and from Yemen.

The Medair pilots who volunteered to undertake the mission, which had to be undertaken in two legs, were Brendan Boraine , Curtis Griessel, Pieter van der Merwe and Wikus Strydom. Netcare 911’s flight doctor, Dr Kevin Hjul, and emergency care practitioner Craig Pyott provided medical care for the baby throughout the flight.

“Transporting such a young and critically ill patient is an intricate process in itself, but this case was further complicated by the fact that permission had to be sought from the Saudi Arabian authorities to cross Saudi airspace, and we then had to wait for them to give us safe timeslots for the flights. We were fully cognisant of the political sensitivities that needed to be negotiated for us to conduct a mercy flight in that part of the world. The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation provided considerable assistance in this regard,” Johnstone said.

Unfortunately the aircraft could only accommodate one of the baby’s parents, his mother Ameera Hussian Aljadbi. Due to the closure of the Saudi Arabian border his father has not been able to join the family in South Africa.

According to unit manager, Sister Ina Kok, the team at the hospital waited more than 10 days for baby Yazan to arrive in the country for the life-saving treatment he required. “This is a special little baby who crept deep into the hearts of the staff and doctors here at the hospital. We are so pleased that he has recovered so well.”

“It is heart-warming that we were all able to work together under the most difficult of circumstances to save the life of a little human being from a faraway, war ravaged country. The teamwork between AIMS, Medair, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Yemen embassy, Netcare Sunninghill Hospital and Netcare 911 has been nothing short of inspirational,” said Grindell.

“All kudos to the Medair and Netcare 911 teams who worked hard to bring this little boy safely to South Africa. We hold it as a point of honour that our tiny patient was safely brought halfway around the world to receive the world-class medical treatment Netcare Sunninghill Hospital has to offer. It is gratifying to know that Yazan is recovering well.”