Prensa. voanews.com
It sounds futuristic: drones carrying heart defibrillators swooping in
to help bystanders revive people stricken by cardiac arrest. Researchers tested
the idea and found drones arrived at the scene of 18 cardiac arrests within
about five minutes of launch. That was almost 17 minutes faster on average than
ambulances — a big deal for a condition where minutes mean life or death.
Drone-delivered devices weren't used on patients in the preliminary
study, but the results are "pretty remarkable" and proof that the
idea is worth exploring, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, a former American Heart
Association president who was not involved in the study. Cardiac arrest is a
leading cause of death worldwide, killing more than 6 million people each year.
Most incidents happen at home or in other nonmedical settings, and most
patients don't survive.
"Ninety percent of people who collapse outside a hospital don't
make it. This is a crisis and it's time we do something different to address
it," said Yancy, cardiology chief at Northwestern University's medical
school in Chicago.
The researchers reached the same conclusion after analyzing cardiac
arrest data in Sweden, focusing on towns near Stockholm that don't have enough
emergency medical resources to serve summer vacationers. The analysis found an
emergency response time of almost 30 minutes and a survival rate of zero, said
lead author Andreas Claesson, a researcher at the Center for Resuscitation
Science at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
To see whether care could be improved, Claesson's team turned to drones.
Drones are increasingly being tested or used in a variety of settings,
including to deliver retail goods to consumers in remote areas, search for lost
hikers and help police monitor traffic or crowds. Using them to speed medical
care seemed like a logical next step, Claesson said. The study was done last
October and was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
Not heart attacks
More than 350,000 Americans suffered cardiac arrest in a nonmedical
setting last year, the American Heart Association says. The condition is often
confused with heart attacks, but they're different. Heart attacks occur when a
clot or other blockage stops blood flow to the heart. Cardiac arrest occurs
when electrical impulses controlling the heart's rhythmic pumping action
suddenly malfunction. The heartbeat becomes very irregular or stops, preventing
blood from reaching vital organs. Death can occur within minutes without
treatment to restore a normal heartbeat, ideally CPR and use of a
defibrillator.
The researchers used a small heart defibrillator weighing less than two
pounds, featuring an electronic voice that gives instructions on how to use the
device. It was attached to a small drone equipped with four small
propeller-like rotors, a Global Positioning System device and camera.
They launched the drone from a fire station within about six miles (10
kilometers) of homes where people had previous cardiac arrests. In the study's
video footage simulating a rescue, a drone soars over residential rooftops and
then lands gently in a backyard. A man dashes out of the house, grabs the
defibrillator and carries it inside.
There were no crashes or other mishaps during the study, Claesson said.
He plans a follow-up study to test drone-delivered defibrillators for
bystanders to use in real-life cardiac arrests. The test results show "a
great potential for saving lives," he said.
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