Medical Escort Logistics Guidelines in Air Ambulance and Commercial Aircraft

Dr Monica Fortea has been a consultant orthopedic and trauma surgeon for more than 20 years. She completed her medical degree at the University Autonoma of Barcelona and a biomedical degree at Leiden Universiteit, speaks eight languages and is also the Medical Director of the International Department at Clinica Corachan in Barcelona.

Dr Fortea’s passion for trauma victims lead her to work as a flight doctor with the Spanish Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) and to perform medical repatriations on fixed wings air ambulance and commercial airliners both in Spain and worldwide during the past two decades.

She also has vast experience in the coordination, management and case handling of patient transfers, retrievals and repatriations whilst advising several major health insurers and medical assistance organizations. Her enthusiasm for helping people around the world, to transfer them safely and efficiently to the most suitable level of care or to bring them home, forms part of her holistic approach to her patient’s care. (Another facet is her interest in healing which manifests itself in her expertise in the subject of nutrition.)

Not one for a quiet life, Monica is also the director of an organization that cares for the wellbeing of seafarers who are injured or fall ill during their long voyages to Europe where they find themselves miles away from home. On top of all this, she is a lecturer and instructor for HEMS services in Spain and teaches internationally. Her passion for the profession is clearly palpable in the enthusiasm she shows while teaching the new generations of aeromedical doctors and nurses.