Inside the flying military hospital that’s treating COVID-19 patients
A March 27 flight on the Morphée. (French Armed Forces Ministry/Chief of Staff/)Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including travel advice, pregnancy concerns, and the latest findings on the virus itself.France recently used its military airborne hospital for the first time to take civilian patients, critically ill with COVID-19, from overstretched hospitals to other facilities better able to cope. The system was designed to bring seriously injured soldiers back to France from war zones, but so far, it has transported 24 people sick with the novel coronavirus.The flying medical facility is known by its French acronym, Morphée. That stands for “intensive care module for patients who need long-haul evacuation.” (The French is “module de réanimation pour patient à haute élongation d'évacuation.”) It allows a patient to receive the same level of intensive care aboard an aircraft as they would in hospital. Operational since September 2006, Morphée has been used...