Emergency airlift of 7-year-old girl briefly closes Paseo Colón

This is the best reason to sit through a traffic jam on San José’s Paseo Colón.

A Public Security Ministry helicopter medevaced a 7-year-old girl who suffered an apparent cardiac arrest Monday morning, from San Ramón, Alajuela, to the National Children’s Hospital in San José. Police closed the major thoroughfare so that the U.S.-made medical helicopter could land as close as possible to the hospital’s entrance, according to a ministry statement. A trauma unit was waiting on the street to rush the patient to the hospital.

The child was admitted in “delicate” condition after doctors at the hospital diagnosed her with a serious ventricular arrhythmia, according to a statement from the National Children’s Hospital.

A trauma unit from the National Children's Hospital scrambles to attend to a child on Paseo Colón on Monday, Feb. 9, 2015. (Courtesy Ministry of Public Security)