An autonomous drone has helped to save the life of a 71-year-old man who was suffering a cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drone delivered a defibrillator to a doctor helping the man, who became ill while shovelling snow outside his house in Trollhattan, Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man, who didn’t wish to be named, told the BBC it was “fantastic” that it arrived so quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company behind the drone says it meant that defibrillation could begin before the arrival of an ambulance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everdrone says it took just over three minutes from the alarm being raised until the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) was delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Passing doctor
The patient told the BBC he doesn’t remember what happened that day in early December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was clearing thick snow from his driveway but when the cardiac arrest hit, “everything went black”, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His wife later told him how lucky he had been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Mustafa Ali, who happened to be driving past at the time, rushed to help and told Everdrone: “I was on my way to work at the local hospital when I looked out the car window and saw a man collapsed in his driveway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The man had no pulse, so I started doing CPR while asking another bystander to call 112 (the Swedish emergency number).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Just minutes later, I saw something flying above my head. It was a drone with a defibrillator.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everdrone chief executive Mats Sallstrom believes the technology played a part in a team effort to save the patient’s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s a medical doctor doing CPR, it’s the early defibrillation, it’s the treatment in the ambulance on the way to the hospital,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s important to understand that there’s a chain of events saving the person’s life, and the drone is a very critical part of how that system works.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drone is a partnership between the Karolinska Institutet – Sweden’s largest medical university – together with the national emergency operator SOS Alarm, Region Vastra Gotaland and Everdrone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2020, the group explored the use of drones to deliver defibrillators in Gothenburg and Kungalv in western Sweden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the four-month study, the Karolinska researchers found that drones were dispatched to 12 out of 14 cases of suspected cardiac arrest, and successfully delivered an AED in all but one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In seven cases the drones arrived before the ambulances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the December incident, it was fortunate that a doctor was nearby, but questions remain about whether members of the public without medical training would know what to do with a defibrillator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the 2020 study no devices were attached to patients, though the reasons why are unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr Sallstrom said they are designed for an untrained person to use, adding: “In these scenarios you are also on the phone to the emergency centre and they can guide you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2020, Everdrone says the system has got a lot faster – the focus now is to work closely with the dispatchers who give instructions to the people on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everdrone is in talks to bring the technology to other countries, including the UK – though the firm won’t say to which ones it has been speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drones are already in use by some UK emergency services. Earlier this year, an 83-year-old man’s family said his life was “saved” when he was found by a police drone after being missing for 18 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ready to go
The key to the Swedish system is having an integrated system ready to go, Everdrone says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drone system is electronically integrated with the emergency dispatch system and can get ready to fly as soon as an emergency call suggesting a cardiac arrest is received, Mr Sallstrom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the drone is autonomous, there is also a “pilot in command” – who oversees the operation for safety reasons and can obtain clearance to take off from air traffic control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This might seem like a huge process but roughly 60 seconds from the alarm we can be on our way,” said Mr Sallstrom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time is very much of the essence, the chance of survival decreases by 7-10% with each minute following collapse, the company says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Everdrone believes eventually the system might be used to deliver other urgently needed medical devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The patient the drone helped save is certainly a fan. In his town, road congestion can be a problem, but the drones, he says, fly over the traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m very, very happy. I think it’s fantastic that they came so quickly,” he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An autonomous drone has helped to save the life of a 71-year-old man who was suffering a cardiac arrest. The drone delivered a defibrillator to a doctor helping the man, who became ill while shovelling snow outside his house in Trollhattan, Sweden. The man, who didn’t wish to be named, told the BBC it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n