Honorable Deputy Chief Minister Shri Dr. Ashwath Narayan launches the Breathe India Initiative by Covid India Campaign.

Bengaluru, May19,2021 : Honorable Deputy Chief Minister Shri Dr. Ashwath Narayan launched the Breathe India Initiative run by Covid India Campaign. He dedicated a number of oxygen concentrators, defibrillators and BiPAP machines, patient monitors and other medical equipment and supplies to the society in the presence of ADGP Reserve Police Mr. Alok Kumar (IPS).

Speaking on the occasion the Dy. CM Dr. Ashwath Narayan thanked the organizers for coming together in such a short time and supporting 6 centers already. He said “We thank Covid India Campaign for supporting the state government of Karnataka in this time of need by launching the Breathe India initiative and the 7 Community Oxygen Centres across the state of Karnataka. This initiative has been instrumental in easing the need of oxygen in the hospitals and augmenting the entire healthcare system in the state”

Dr. Shalini Nalwad, Chairperson of the ICATT Foundation and Co-founder of the Covid India Campaign said” We have been very active since the first wave, enabling more than INR 4 Crores worth of N95 masks, PPE kits and other essential medical supplies to the frontline workers and we are now focussing on converting normal beds into oxygenated beds by deploying the necessary medical infrastructure in place”

Dr. Naga Nischal, Consultant Emergency Medicine, Head of Clinical Services at Cloudnine Hospitals and Karnataka President for the Society for Emergency Medicine of India said, “When patients are administered oxygen early, deterioration of their condition can be avoided. Our aim was to shorten the time to availability of oxygen for needy patients by launching Community Oxygen Centers pan India that will administer oxygen and needful medications without a delay”

Swadeep Pillarisetti, an IIT Madras alumnus, Co-founder of Covid India Campaign (CIC) and Lead, Breathe India Initiative said, “Speed is of the essence, hence we quickly conceptualized this and brought together this amazing team of volunteers and organizations in a record time. We aim to set up one Community Oxygen Centre every 24 hours across the country. We have also garnered strong CSR support from various large corporates and NGOs in India as well as abroad”

Arjun Nagarajan, Co- Founder and CEO at Syook and Co-lead of the Breathe India Initiative said, “A lot of things from fundraise to supply chain to distribution had to be organized in a very short time. We have raised over INR 1 Crore in about a week and in parallel got things going on the ground. We have supplies coming in from different areas around the world like the US, Israel and China. I would like to thank all our donors, supporters and volunteers”.

Harsha Krishna, The President of Aviratha Bharatha said “We are working very closely with the local administration to get them timely help as soon as possible. I would like to thank all the volunteers on the ground who are working very closely with healthcare personnel to provide equipment in need”.

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Bengaluru: Though air ambulance services commenced in Bengaluru about a decade ago, it never took off as one would have expected it to. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) even dedicated a special chopper to undertake emergency evacuation of passengers and a few other private players after launching their own services.

However, in the covid era, the services seem to have finally taken wings. The integrated air ambulance services, launched a couple of months ago in the city, have been regularly involved in undertaking covid transfers apart from assisting in organ airlift (lungs transplant) and providing transport for patients who are on Extra corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) therapy.

The International Critical Air Transfer Team (ICATT) air ambulance services was launched in the city in September and have been regularly undertaking these emergency airlifts. ”We have been doing well since the launch. We are doing airlifts, which are mostly covid-related complications. We have done back-to-back covid transfers where patients are airlifted from different parts of the country and shifted to hospitals. As the ambulance is equipped with an Isolation Pod, we are able to do these transfers safely and regularly,” says Dr Shalini Nalwad, director, ICATT.

While ambulances are used for short transfers (around 250 km), fixed wing air ambulances are used for shifting patients for long- distance airlifts. Nalwad said they have done transfers across districts within the state and also airlifted patients from Bhopal, Raipur, Goa and transferred them to hospitals in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. The air ambulance fleet is based at the HAL airport.

“We have helped many patients get lung transplants after the services were launched. There are many opting for lung transplants as the survival success rate for the first year after the transplant is 80 per cent. Besides that, we have also done about 18 transfers involving patients who are on ECMO therapy,” Nalwad said, adding that the fare depends on various factors like travel time, distance between the patient’s pick-up point and destination of the hospitals, and the services that a patient might require onboard the aircraft or the helicopter.

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Bengaluru: ICATT (International Critical Air Transfer Team), India’s only air ambulance company owned and lead by experienced Emergency Medical Services experts and critical care doctors, today announced the launch of Integrated Air ambulance services for the first time in the country, in collaboration with Kyathi, a leading aviation technology firm.

ICATT Kyathi’s fixed wing aircraft for long distance emergency medical transport, combined with helicopter and land ambulance services providing last mile connectivity, will address the growing need for timely and quality emergency medical services in India. The fixed wing air ambulance to be stationed at the HAL airport in Bangalore, will also be the first air ambulance based out of South India, enabling speedier services for medical emergencies in the region and overcoming the challenges of high road traffic in the metro cities.

Equipped with state-of-the-art German Isolation Pod, ICATT Kyathi will enable safe transport for critical COVID-19 patients as well. The integrated air ambulance service was formally unveiled and launched today by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Sri. B.S. Yediyurappa. The event was graced by Sri. B. Sriramulu, Hon’ble Minister of Health &Family Welfare and Dr. Sudhakar Hon’ble Minister of Medical Education, Govt. of Karnataka.

Speaking at the inaugural event, Sri B S Yediyurappa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka said, “During times of emergency, providing timely and speedy medical care and treatment is of paramount importance. The introduction of ICATT Kyathi’s Integrated Air Ambulance service will ensure not only quick medical assistance but also high quality care delivered by senior doctors and paramedics trained in critical care, while in flight. I am happy that ICATT Kyathi chose to station the air ambulance in Bangalore, catering better not only to the city, but to the whole of South India. I am also glad that we have taken this initiative at a time such as the COVID-19 pandemic when healthcare concerns are higher than normal”.

Speaking after the formal launch of the air ambulance at Jakkur aerodrome today, Dr. Shalini Nalwad, Co-Founder & Director, ICATT, said, “India requires better emergency medical services to meet the growing number of emergencies. What exists today, primarily stationed out of Delhi and Mumbai and providing fragmented services across the country, falls short of meeting the requirement. Second, for the service to be fully effective, you need last mile connectivity through well-equipped land ambulances and helicopters that could cater to cases in close by Tier II cities or overcome the challenge of loss of time in the golden hour due to land traffic. Being the only air ambulance service providers with medical know-how and expertise, there could be no none better than us to understand the relevance and need for integrated services and we are happy that we have finally launched this, more so at a time when the need for emergency medical care has been at an all-time high.”

Dr. Rahul Singh Sardar, Co-Founder & Director ICATT added, “The key aspect in choosing the right air ambulance is to understand the importance and criticality of the service. Having the right aero- medical professionals to tend to the patient while transferring them to a hospital is extremely important. Our team of doctors and paramedics have undergone the world’s best training in critical care, pre-hospital emergency, ECMO and Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) enabling us to offer top-of-the-line medical care and assistance in times of emergency. ICATT has a comprehensive medevac team of doctors, intensivists, perfusionists and paramedics. The doctors and paramedics are certified in Fellowship in Aero Medicine (FAM)”

ICATT has to its credit the first International Aero-Medical transfer since the lock down from Afghanistan to India. ICATT has also undertaken India’s longest ever Medical Airlift from South Africa to Chennai and has enabling Favourable outcomes through Rapid Patient and Organ Transfer with precision. This year, ICATT has completed 63 Domestic Transfers, 10 International Transfers and 7 Organ Transfers until date. ICATT HEMS had played a significant role during Kerala disaster and has been instrumental in saving many lives.

Dr. Ashwath Narayan C.N, Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka said, “Emergency Medical Services is an essential part of the overall healthcare infrastructure and system. ICATT’s integrated air ambulance service will enable us further strengthen the state’s and the region’s healthcare infrastructure.” Sri. B. Sriramulu, Hon’ble Minister of Health & Family Welfare, added, “Bangalore has some of the world’s and country’s best medical and healthcare service providers. The city also is home to expats as well as professionals from across the country and globe. In this context, ICATT’s air ambulance service for emergency medical care will strengthen the healthcare infrastructure and support services readily available for people in the city and in the nearby region.”

Dr. Sudhakar, Hon’ble Minister for Medical Education, Govt. of Karnataka, said “It is of utmost importance to render quick and qualitative medical attention especially in times of emergency. ICATT’s team of doctors are doing a stupendous service in providing quality healthcare services to patients in need. The air ambulance service is a step in the right direction to provide quicker and better healthcare services”.

About ICATT: A Specialised Air Ambulance Service, ICATT is the only Comprehensive Patient Transfer Solution that is owned and led by doctors with over 14 years of domain knowledge and experience in the field of Aero Medical Transfers. ICATT’s doctors have gone through one of the world’s best training programs in the UK in Critical care/ Anaesthesia, Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine and ECMO (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenator). The gruelling training of doctors at the NHS (National Health Service) has helped incorporate the culture of clinical governance. The highly trained team of doctors and paramedics have taken this opportunity to introduce the same system in India under ICATT.

ICATT has established a reputation of being medically led by practising ICU and air ambulance intensivists. ICATT has also signed a MoU with Germany’s HEMS service and ADAC for technical support for the HEMS pilot project. ICATT also has an in-house training program called FAM, Fellowship in Aeromedical Services. This is a unique and one of its kind training program in the world which involves training of Aeromedical commandos of India. The course is done in collaboration with Kent Sussex HEMS and London HEMS services. Till date, ICATT has trained 12 top emergency specialist and 12 paramedics of the country. This team is capable of undertaking any intervention in a pre-hospital environment. To know more please log on to: https://www.icatt.in/about-us/

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