For K_Z or other Medical Professionals - Is is possible for BK to be flown to CA in her condition? Since CA is where BB, wife, child, and the newborn baby will live, it makes much more sense to put BK in a facility out there. She would be close to him and he would have more control over her security personally.
On that note, the best possible situation would be if no one knew where she was. It is only a matter of time until NG will be a factor to deal with again. I can't imagine him staying in the program for the complete duration. IMO.
BBM.
Certainly, transport is no problem at all, given enough $$-- she can be transported anywhere the family wants her to be. There are commercial medical air transport services, like the one I linked below, that can move a patient of pretty much any complexity (who is relatively stable) anywhere there is an appropriate runway to receive the plane. Typically, one also has to arrange private ambulance transport to the flight line on the sending end, and from the flight line to wherever the patient is going, on the receiving end.
My airevac experience is in doing military medevac, long haul/ international, in military transport planes. To go from east coast to west coast in the U.S. very likely would require a "gas stop" for these smaller jets. I'm not positive, but I doubt they could get from Atlanta to, say, Los Angeles, without a stop for gas in these small jets, but maybe they could. I think it depends on weather, projected flight path, etc.
I don't think BK has any conditions that have been publicized that would require a cabin altitude restriction. Things like pneumothorax and retinal detachments require cabin altitude restrictions, which require the pilot to fly lower, slower, and use more fuel, to keep cabin altitude lower, or at sea level. When I was flying, our cabin altitude was about 6500 to 8000 feet, with an outside altitude of about 33,000+. At that altitude, as on commercial flights, things like a potato chip bag will appear overly inflated. The same thing happens with things like the air filled cuffs on medical equipment, like endotracheal tubes, or tracheostomy tubes-- easy to remedy by temporarily filling the balloons with saline. Liquids are not compressible, nor do they expand at altitude. (Except for carbonated beverages when you open them!) For the same reason, small air pockets in a lung, for instance, that cause no significant problems on the ground, can expand and collapse the whole lobe or whole lung unless they are ventilated with a chest tube.
Anyway, with enough money, and a little planning with sending and receiving facilities, and arranging ground transport, ventilator patients can be moved relatively easily. I'm not entirely sure of the costs, but I think a cross country move for a patient of her complexity would only be about $20- 30K, which this family can easily afford if they choose. (But don't hold me to that price quote-- I could be waaay off-- especially with the more expensive and bigger Learjets!)
http://www.angelmedflight.com/
