Transferts héliportés interhospitaliers de patients atteints de COVID-19 : expérience du SDIS du Bas-Rhin

The massive and rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Alsace and then in the Grand-Est region from the beginning of March 2020 led suddenly to a crowd of patients requiring hospitalisation because of their dependency of oxygen relating to respiratory failure. As the capacity to care for patients requiring respiratory resuscitation became insufficient, inter-hospital transfers quickly became a necessity and were implemented between 15 March and 10 April 2020. Within the Eastern defence zone, including the Grand-Est and the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regions, 317 resuscitation patients were transported by air to hospitals in France (57%), Germany (32%), Switzerland (9%), Luxembourg and Austria (1%). The feasibility of the transfer was guided by the quality of the hematosis of the patient ventilated with a FiO(2) lower than 0.7, and the hemodynamic stability with or without vasopressor. In order to prevent contamination, the choice was made to protect the personnel individually with PPE, rather than isolating the patient in a patient isolation unit. Each mission was followed by decontamination of the hold and equipment. Not all the aircraft had 28 V/220 V converters or specific power cables for the medical equipment. In all cases, it was necessary to pay great attention to the electrical autonomy as well as the oxygen supply. The simplicity of design, the autonomy, the electrical equipment, the speed of the decontamination phase enabling missions to be carried out on a daily basis, and therefore the dispatch of medical resource requirements, are all elements promoting the use of multi-stretchers helicopters.