Samaritan's Purse Responding to COVID-19 Crisis in Italy

On March 17, 2020 the Samaritan's Purse DC-8 airlifted a 68-bed Emergency Field Hospital to northern Italy. The cargo plane carried approximately 20 tons of medical equipment, a specialized respiratory care unit developed specifically in response to COVID-19, and 32 disaster response specialists including respiratory therapists, doctors, and nurses. The Emergency Field Hospital was be set up just outside of Milan, Italy, where the coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed the local medical infrastructure, leaving many families without access to critical care. At that time the country was reporting hundreds of deaths each day.