Australia: Australia has evacuated a sick expedition member from a remote outpost in Antarctica in a rescue operation spanning thousands of kilometers. According to reports, the urgent rescue operation was launched last week to reach the researcher, who has an undisclosed “developing medical condition.” The mission involved a medical retrieval team, a massive icebreaker ship, and two helicopters.
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) said in a statement that the icebreaking ship RSV Nuyina had sailed more than 3,000 kilometers from Hobart in Tasmania to the Casey Research Station in the east Antarctic to attend to the unnamed patient. Medical facilities are limited on the research station, and AAP only about 20 people live there during the winter, when conditions are at their worst. The Australian Antarctic Program (AAP) updated that the man had been flown to RSV Nuyina.
With the first stage of the rescue mission complete, the ship is expected to arrive back in the city of Hobart next week.
“The expeditioner will be looked after in the Nuyina’s specially equipped and designed medical facility by our polar medicine doctors and Royal Hobart Hospital medical staff,” Mr, Robb Clifton, AAD’s acting general manager of operations and logistics, said in a statement. “Getting this expeditioner back to Tasmania for the specialist medical care required is our priority,” Mr. Clifton added.
The man is now on his way to Tasmania, where he will receive specialist assessment and care. “The expeditioner’s family is being kept fully informed of the situation, and all other personnel on stations are accounted for and safe,” the AAP remarked.
Australia requires all researchers sent to Antarctica to undergo lengthy medical examinations before deployment. Evacuations from one of the most inhospitable areas of the planet are often complex, expensive, fraught with danger, and can require assistance from international partners.
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