A rescued migrant receives a surgical operation in EUNAVFOR MED operation Sophia Flagship’ hospital
This night, following yesterday intense rescue operation activity in the central Mediterranean Sea, which led to save more than 2000 lives from 8 boats spotted by EUNAVFOR MED Luxemburgish aircraft SW3 Merlin III 
, the FRONTEX operation TRITON ship Siem Pilot has asked urgent medical support to operation Sophia ’s assets for a suffering migrant.
The Italian aircraft carrier Cavour , EUNAVFOR MED flagship, has then rapidly closed distance with the Norwegian ship in order to allow the embarked medical team to board the vessel and visit the migrant.
Having diagnosed a case of peritonitis, the medical team decided to transfer the migrant on board aircraft carrier Cavour to conduct additional and in depth analysis in the ship’s highly capable hospital and better clarify the clinical condition of the migrant. Afterwards, considering the quickly deteriorating migrant’s health status, ship’s doctors decided to suddenly conduct the surgical operation.
The surgery, which lasted almost 3 hours, was successful and, after the necessary patience stabilization, the migrant has been transferred by EH 101 helicopter to the Lampedusa Island hospital for the postoperative recovery.
Among migrants saved yesterday, 11 April, 738 were rescued from a rubber boat and two wooden boats by the German auxiliary ship FRANKFURT part of EUNAVFOR MED operation Sophia’s Task Force.
The Italian aircraft carrier Cavour, EUNAVFOR MED operation Sophia’s flagship, may be regarded as a floating hospital thanks to her extensive medical capabilities crucial for military but also for humanitarian and disaster relief operations. Moreover, through high‐speed satellite data transmission and specific systems, doctors onboard can take advantage of almost real time diagnosis made ashore by additional radiologists and surgeon.
Ship’s hospital has 3 hospitalization rooms with 20 beds altogether (standard hospitalization), one ICU (Intensive Care Unit) with 8 beds, 1 reanimation unit with 4 beds, 2 surgery rooms, MRI and RX machines, a dental cabinet, a pharmacy and analysis laboratories.