Drones could soon be dropping off packages at customers’ doors. But researchers in Sweden have drones in mind for a different, potentially lifesaving delivery: automated external defibrillators.
Using drones to carry AEDs to people who are in cardiac arrest could reduce the time between when patients go into cardiac arrest and when they receive the first shock from an AED, the researchers say.
The more time a person spends in cardiac arrest before being shocked with an AED, the lower the chance of survival. Shocking someone within three minutes gives them the best shot.
More than 350,000 cardiac arrests happen across the U.S. in places other than hospitals each year, according to the American Heart Association — and a person’s chance of surviving is about 1 in 10. Drone-delivered AEDs beat ambulance trip times to the scenes of cardiac arrests, the researchers say in a letter published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Could Drones Help Save People In Cardiac Arrest?
Photo: Andreas Claesson/Courtesy of FlyPulse
