Ambulance Drone Could Help Save Heart Attack Victims

Drones might have come into negative light recently, including an instant where it reportedly came close to crashing into an aircraft – which could end up in disastrous results, not that the world needs another aviation disaster to round off the coming to the end of 2014. However, there are positives to be drawn from the use of drones for sure, where a Dutch-based student has recently unveiled a prototype of what is known as an “ambulance drone”. This particular drone happens to be a flying defibrillator which is capable of reaching heart attack victims within minutes – as there is no need to weave through rush hour traffic, buying perhaps some precious life-saving minutes in the process.

Belgian engineering graduate Alec Momont is the one behind this unique drone, where it is capable of actually flying at speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour). Momont shared, “Around 800,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest in the European Union every year and only 8.0 percent survive. The main reason for this is the relatively long response time of emergency services of around 10 minutes, while brain death and fatalities occur with four to six minutes.”

This ambulance drone of his is capable of delivering a defibrillator to a patient within a 12 square kilometer (4.6 square miles) zone in just a minute, and hence increasing the chance of survival from 8% all the way to 80%. It will be easily spotted, having being painted in a shade of emergency services yellow, and will have half a dozen propellers driving it while it brings along a 4kg load.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Medical, Robots
Tags: Drones