Coast Guard evacuates 55-year-old cardiac patient from Lakshadweep

Kochi: Indian Coast Guard (ICG) undertook a critical medical evacuation (medevac) of a 55-year-old man from Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, who suffered a cardiac emergency on Monday. On receiving urgent request from the Lakshadweep administration, ICG immediately launched a Dornier aircraft for a night evacuation operation. Considering the medical urgency and the challenges of night operations over the sea, the aircraft based in Kochi was rapidly reconfigured into a mobile intensive care unit (MICU) to provide continuous life support during the evacuation, said an official statement. The operation was planned and executed at extremely short notice, involving rapid assessment of medical criticality, weather conditions and night operational constraints. The aircraft safely landed at Agatti Island, embarked the patient swiftly, and proceeded to Kochi. Upon arrival, the patient was transferred to Aster Medcity Hospital for advanced medical care, said an official statement. The successful conduct of this mission highlights ICG's capability to execute time-critical humanitarian operations in challenging environments, the statement added. This mission marks the second medevac operation conducted by ICG this month.