Drone Reportedly Helps Save A Heart Attack Patient’s Life In Sweden
By Mikelle Leow, 07 Jan 2022
Drones aren’t just for taking bird’s-eye photos or for delivering parcels, but they’ve also been developed to save lives by transporting first-aid materials to emergency or less-accessible zones. And now, one of the earliest instances of aerial delivery equipment living its purpose of providing crucial medical care has surfaced.
In Sweden, emergency services engage drone assistance to aid patients before an ambulance can arrive. This was reportedly put to the test on December 9, 2021, when a 71-year-old man in Trollhättan suffered a cardiac arrest while shoveling snow in his driveway.
Thankfully, a doctor named Mustafa Ali was driving to work when he saw the man collapsed in front of his house. The doctor rushed out of the car and checked the man’s pulse, and when he did not detect a heartbeat, he quickly performed CPR on the patient.
Dr Ali also got a bystander to call emergency services, and help arrived just moments later.
“It was a drone with a defibrillator!” recalled the doctor.
The device was part of the Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery service deployed by drone maker Everdrone, which works with the country’s emergency call center to respond to such calls. In a news release, Everdrone said the flying vehicle reached the man’s doorstep in “just over three minutes,” carrying a light, portable defibrillator.
The defibrillator was used on-site to help restore the man’s heartbeat. He was then rushed to the hospital to complete treatment.
According to Everdrone, the 71-year-old has fully recovered from the incident.
“I can’t put into words how thankful I am to this new technology and the speedy delivery of the defibrillator,” the man was reported to have said. “If it wasn’t for the drone I probably wouldn’t be here.”
For now, the drone medical service can reach as many as 200,000 residents in Sweden, though the firm intends to bring it to other parts of Europe this year.
[via Futurism and Interesting Engineering, images via Everdrone]