EXPERTS SAID DR. OLA OREKUNRIN'S DREAM TO CREATE AIR AMBULANCE SERVICE IN NIGERIA WAS IMPOSSIBLE. BUT A DOCTOR AND HELICOPTER PILOT, SHE HAD THE SKILLS AND DEDICATION TO MAKE IT WORK. OREKUNRIN TELLS HOST MICHEL MARTIN ABOUT FLYING DOCTORS NIGERS.
TRANSCRIPT
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: We're going to turn now to another story about the struggle to provide health care in a part of the world that surely needs it. We're talking about Africa. But today, we're not talking about health concerns that are often in the news like malaria or HIV/AIDS. My next guest, Dr. Ola Orekunrin, says there is another epidemic. She calls it a silent epidemic, and she's talking about trauma. But she's not just talking about it. She has actually piloted a solution, and I mean that literally. She is the founder and managing director of West Africa's first air ambulance service Flying Doctors Nigeria. She is a medical doctor and a helicopter pilot, and she's with us now. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
OLA OREKUNRIN: Hi, lovely to be here.
MARTIN: Tell me exactly what your organization does.
OREKUNRIN: Well, we do what any other air ambulance service in the world does really, which is transfer somebody who has overwhelmed the level of care in a particular environment to a more suitable level of care for them. And I think the difference is in an air ambulance service operating in Africa…