AirMed International brings HCA beneficiary home from Ireland

Posted on December 31, 2018

On a family vacation outside Cork, Ireland this summer, Michael Kovach suddenly felt the classic symptoms of a heart attack: cold, clammy skin and severe pressure on his chest. "I actually died, and they shocked me back to life," recalls Kovach, who was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.

Kovach, 58, who works for the Pinellas County, Fla., Sheriff's Office, can't say enough about the medical care he received in Ireland. And the same goes for AirMed International, which flew him back home to continue his recovery.

“They treated me very well through the whole process.”

Kovach's wife, Marian, is a nurse at Largo Medical Center, a HCA facility whose employees and dependents now qualify for global air medical transport services through HCA Healthcare's agreement with AirMed.

"It could have been $60,000 to $70,000 out of our pocket" without the HCA coverage, Kovach says. "Because I wasn't healthy enough to go back on a commercial flight."

Kovach flew out of the Cork airport on a Hawker 800 jet at 7:30 a.m. Aug. 24 (Ireland time) and landed at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport at 4:30 p.m. (Florida time) the same day. Flying with him were his wife, two nurses and the AirMed flight crew. After further treatment, Kovach recently returned to work at the sheriff's office.