United States commenced construction of the first of three new helicopter landing zones across Croatia. The ground-breaking ceremony in Karlovac marks the start of a $1.1 million project developing helicopter landing platforms at Karlovac Hospital, Dubrava Clinical Hospital in Zagreb, and Josip Benčević Hospital in Slavonski Brod.
The United States is providing this assistance to Karlovac Hospital and the Croatian Ministry of Health to enable helicopter emergency capabilities that will reach, treat, and save the lives of patients. With this support, Croatian emergency services will be able to reach and treat approximately half of Croatia’s population within the “golden hour” or the first hour following a traumatic injury. Patients who are in the operating room within one hour of injury consistently benefit from a much higher survival rate. The United States is committed to assisting the Croatian people wherever possible and to strengthening the U.S.-Croatia partnership at the national and local levels. This project and the resulting emergency-medical response capabilities will further bolster U.S.-Croatia military cooperation, facilitating future multinational exercises and enabling greater U.S.-Croatian bilateral and multinational training engagements at Croatia’s Slunj Training Range. The new Helicopter Landing Zone (HLZ) in Karlovac will crucially provide night-landing capabilities that will dramatically improve emergency medical services in the region.
This HLZ initiative is one of the largest medical assistance partnerships undertaken by the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. Military’s European Command in Croatia.