SNF-supported air ambulance transports 15-year-old to Italy for an emergency transplant

At the end of July 2025, news of a 15-year-old boy who suffered acute liver failure following heatstroke shocked Greece. His transfer from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the General University Hospital of Patras (Rio), where he was hospitalized and intubated, to a specialized Transplant Center in Turin which had secured a liver transplant was deemed necessary. The boy was immediately transported in the state-of-the-art new Beechcraft King Air 360C aircraft given to the Hellenic Ministry of Health by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in May 2025. This particular aircraft was the most suitable choice for air transport, as it met both the necessary medical and technical specifications and the required safety conditions, given the distance and duration of the flight. Subsequently, following the boy's smooth air transfer to Turin, the transplant was successfully completed.

All of us at SNF are deeply moved to have contributed in our own way to his treatment, and we extend our warmest wishes for a speedy recovery to him and his family. The Ministry of Health, the National Center for Emergency Care (EKAV), and the Air Force responded immediately. We express our gratitude to the medical and nursing staff who selflessly contributed to the successful outcome of the incident—from the Metsovo Health Center and the Ioannina G. Hatzikosta General Hospital, to the General University Hospital of Patras—and, of course, to the medical team and the EKAV paramedic who accompanied him to Turin.

As part of its billion-dollar-plus Global Health Initiative (GHI)—its largest initiative to date—SNF has supported the procurement of five aircraft (three airplanes and two helicopters) to strengthen EKAV’s Air Ambulance Services. Implementation of the grant was made possible through collaboration between SNF and the Hellenic Ministry of Health, which has ownership of the aircraft; EKAV, which uses them; and the Hellenic Air Force, which assists in flight operations. During their first four years of operation (June 2021-March 2025), the five aircraft carried out almost 3,500 patient transports all across Greece.