Cardiac Arrest? Drones May Come to Your Rescue

Cardiac Arrest?  Drones May Come to Your Rescue

?Cardiac arrest

They have been offered drones for some rather mundane uses, such as delivering pizzas or wrappers, but new research suggests that high-flying machines could be used to enter and save lives.

Swedish researchers believe that drones can quickly provide defibrillators to someone whose heart suddenly stopped beating.

"Every minute after a cardiac arrest decreases the probability of survival by about 10 percent," senior researcher Andreas Claesson. It is a resuscitation science paramedics center of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

"In rural areas, a drone with a DEA [Automated External Defibrillator] could go very far - meaning 16 minutes [faster] - emergency medical services," he said.

And that, Claesson said, could "potentially save lives through earlier defibrillation by viewers in place."

When someone in a hospital has sudden cardiac arrest, skilled personnel can use a defibrillator to save lives immediately. These machines collide electrically heart in hopes of restoring the normal beat rhythm.

In case of sudden cardiac arrest occurs outside a hospital, emergency teams must fight traffic and distance to provide defibrillators to those in need.

However the new study suggests that drones could surpass ambulances to accelerate unimpeded on obstructed roads and long distances to make an easy-to-use AED tool in the hands of people who are already in place.

Only about 10 percent of patients with cardiac arrest. But a very fast application of CPR can double or even triple the chances of survival of a patient, said Claesson.

The challenge is to connect patients with timely, Claesson observe trained medical emergency medical services (EMS), especially in rural areas where hospitals and AED equipment are often very remote. This means that "close relatives of cardiac arrest are crucial for survival" because they are essentially the primary caregivers.

It is with this scenario in mind that the study undertook to see if delivery of defibrillators by drone would be effective, according to Claesson.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the United States stated that the AED are specifically designed to be portable and usable by untrained viewers.

Devices are often found in public establishments such as sports centers, shopping centers and airports.

However, they are not always available. And this means that when a heart attack occurs, many Americans, especially those living in remote areas, should call 911.

For the study, the Swedish research team equipped a fire station in the Stockholm area with a drone developed by the Swedish Transport Agency. The devices were fully equipped with an AED, GPS, autopilot software and a high definition camera.

In 2016, the researchers carried out 18 remotely simulated drones. The places were about 6 miles from the fire station. The actual patients experienced cardiac arrest at each place between 2006 and 2014.

The drone delivered the DEA in just over 5 minutes. This compares to an average standard delivery EMS 22 minutes. This meant a saving of almost 16 minutes delivering, according to the report.

The average leave was only 3 seconds after the command of an office drone. For EMS, the average call processing time was 3 minutes, according to the study.

Because there were real patients on hand and was a second pilot drones handy at the landing site, Claesson said his team does not know how viewers can interact with the drone or DEA. He also noted that aviation regulations should be clearly taken into account if such a system has never been implemented.

The spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians Dr. Leigh Vinocur is the Medical Director of the Emergency Care Division at MedStar Health in Columbia, Maryland.

He noted that the current survey is "very low" and does not include the actual variables that could affect the delivery of drones, such as bad weather.

However, Vinocur considers the theoretical perspective of the defibrillators provided by the drone as "a great idea with great potential. "

"We know that cardiac arrest in the hospital has high mortality, improved CPR and early defibrillation with DAE," Vinocur said.

However, Vinocur says some neighboring communities have limited access to the DEA.

"Not only have to go farther distances to reach patients, as well as transportation to the hospital, sometimes it may not be enough equipment And the staff to cover several calls at once, "

But "in this study they found that in all cases, the drone arrived before EMS," a speed of delivery of innovation Vinocur thinks that one day could be "clinically significant".