A safari accident in Tanzania: meeting a family’s wider needs

An elderly couple on safari with their grandson in Tanzania were rushed to a local hospital after an accident in which their safari buggy toppled over. The man was admitted with a fractured neck and superficial head injuries, whilst his wife and grandchild had minor outpatient treatment. But the man needed advanced medical care, and this wasn’t available locally.

Our approach in action

As soon as Charles Taylor Assistance was notified of the case, our specialist teams rushed into action. Within a few hours, our in-house medics had liaised with the man’s treating doctors in Tanzania, carried out a full medical review, and authorised an air ambulance from our trusted network of providers that was able to reach the remote area where he was hospitalised.

Our plan was to transfer him to a superior hospital in Nairobi, also part of our global network and with which we have direct billing arrangements. Here we’d organised a hospital bed and briefed doctors, who were ready and waiting to receive him.

First thing the next morning, the air ambulance crew arrived at the Tanzanian hospital. They explained that they would stay by the patient’s side until he reached his new hospital bed and they were soon on their way to the airport with him by road ambulance. By 7.45am their flight had set off for Nairobi with the specialist equipment needed to support the patient’s injuries.

Supporting the family

Meanwhile, recognising that the couple’s grandchild would have been distressed by the safari accident, our travel and assistance teams were keen to reunite him with his mother back in the UK and return him home as soon as possible.

As soon as Charles Taylor Assistance was notified of the case, our specialist teams rushed into action

First, they arranged flights to Nairobi for the child and his grandmother, booked suitable accommodation for the pair close to the hospital where the patient was being treated, and asked the hospital to confirm that they were unharmed. At the same time, they kept in close contact with the boy’s mother, funding her return flights to Nairobi so she could be by her son’s side and accompany him home. And it wasn’t long before the two of them were safely back in the UK.

Expert medical oversight

For the next two weeks, whilst the patient was in hospital in Nairobi, our medical team carefully oversaw his care to ensure he received the appropriate treatment.

We were also in constant touch with his wife; funding her accommodation nearby, ensuring she had everything she needed, and talking through every step of her husband’s care.

The couple couldn’t have been happier with the care they’d received and were delighted to be back on their home turf

Once the patient’s treating doctors and our own in-house medics were satisfied that he had recovered and was fit to fly, our travel team arranged business class flights home for both him and his wife and sent a nurse to Nairobi to accompany them; ensuring that he had plenty of seating space and that his needs were met throughout the nine-hour flight.

When they touched down in the UK, a taxi was waiting to take the couple home, still accompanied by our nurse, who made sure they were safely settled before setting off herself.

The couple couldn’t have been happier with the care they’d received and were delighted to be back on their home turf again.