AEROMEDICAL EVACUATION OF VIETNAM’S LEVEL-2 FIELD HOSPITAL IN THE UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN SOUTH SUDAN: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the characteristics of aeromedical evacuation (AE) operations in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) carried out by Vietnam’s Level-2 Field Hospital (L2FH). Methods: A retrospective, descriptive study on the data from all AE activities of the Aeromedical Evacuation Team (AMET) of Vietnam’s L2FH from October 2018 to March 2022 in Bentiu, South Sudan. Results: 31 AE patients were collected with 1 case of casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), 14 cases of emergency medical evacuation (MEDEVAC), and 16 cases of non-emergency MEDEVAC. The mean age was 38.8 ± 8.4 years old, and the majority were male (83.9%). Patients were mainly from troop-contributing countries (TCCs) (67.7%). All cases belonged to the non-battle injury group, the majority was illness (93.5%). 6 infectious cases underwent AE, of which 2 patients were diagnosed with suspected severe COVID-19. Most patients needed medical officer escorts (29/31). The mean time from AE approval to patient referral for emergency MEDEVAC was 1.8 ± 0.4 hours, and for non-emergency MEDEVAC was 12.5 ± 7.9 hours. All cases were successfully transferred without any complications during AE. Conclusion: All patients under AE were not due to combat injury and mainly belonged to internal medicine disease, which raises the importance of training and experience exchange in both trauma and non-trauma air transport.