Air Ambulance dawns in Victoria Falls

Helidrive National Air Rescue Service

THE Presidential Air Ambulance service, Helidrive Zimbabwe, on Friday began operations from the resort city of Victoria Falls after airlifting a critically ill three-day-old infant from Hwange to Bulawayo.

The opening of the Victoria Falls service follows the earlier establishment of Helidrive bases in Harare and Bulawayo.
The inaugural flight marked the commencement of operations from the newly refurbished helipad at Victoria Falls District Hospital.

For years, residents and tourists in the region faced the grim reality of either enduring the 435 kilometre Bulawayo–Victoria Falls Road or waiting more than four hours for a helicopter dispatched from Bulawayo or Harare during a medical emergency.

That waiting period has now been reduced to just two hours from Victoria Falls or Hwange to Bulawayo, home to the country’s major referral hospitals.

With Helidrive now permanently stationed in the resort city, international tourists are guaranteed world class emergency medical evacuation services, addressing a long standing concern within the tourism industry.
Helidrive Zimbabwe, a Government subsidised air medical service that provides emergency transport completely free of charge to patients, had previously operated only from Bulawayo and Harare.

On Friday at around 10am, the newly established base demonstrated its critical importance when the crew received an emergency call from Hwange involving a three day old infant suffering from neonatal sepsis.

Within minutes, the Victoria Falls based helicopter was airborne. Shortly after the successful transfer, Zimpapers spoke to Chief Pilot Vadim Vagapov at the Victoria Falls District Hospital helipad.

“Before we were in Harare, then we moved to Bulawayo. Now we have two helicopters in Harare, two in Bulawayo, and started a new base in Victoria Falls. The medical crew, pilots, and technicians are full-time and will be here. We are covering the Victoria Falls area. Most of our flights will be flown to Bulawayo from here, and we can also pick up lots of patients from Hwange.

“Before opening this base, to pick up a patient from Hwange or from Victoria Falls was taking two hours, even more, two and a half hours just to get here. Now, we can launch a helicopter immediately. From here to Hwange its 20 minutes. This way, we can improve our medical operations and save more lives in Zimbabwe. I would like to remind that Helidrive Zimbabwe works moving patients for free, there is no charge. We are Government-subsidised, and all patients can be moved to a better facility without charging them,” said Chief Pilot Vagapov.

Medical consultant and anaesthesiologist intensive care specialist, Ekaterina Balandina, highlighted the clinical importance of the new base.

“Today we stated and had a first case from Hwange: a three-day-old baby who suffered from neonatal sepsis. We successfully transferred this baby to Bulawayo to improve his treatment. It takes for us only 20 minutes to go to Hwange.

Before this time, patients needed to wait for two hours for our Bulawayo team to pick them up. In our service, we have the ‘golden hour.’ The faster we transfer patients to a hospital with more special facilities, the better the outcome.”

The atmosphere at Victoria Falls District Hospital was charged with excitement as residents gathered to witness the activation of the helipad, expressing widespread relief at the improved emergency response capacity.

“We have lost some of our people while being transported to Bulawayo through road ambulances. To see a patient fly out in a few hours gives us hope that our relatives will live,” said Ms Memory Ncube, a local Victoria Falls resident.
Mr Thabani Dube described the development as a major boost for both healthcare and tourism.

“This is a game-changer for tourism, too. Tourists were afraid of getting sick here. Now, with Helidrive on the ground, we can tell the world that Victoria Falls is safe,” he said.