SerpApi.Org
More than 350,000 people suffer from cardiac arrest in a year, with only 10 percent surviving. Researchers are testing a high-tech way to help those in need.
"We've discovered that the first five minutes matter the most for survival," Monique Starks, MD, said.
Researchers at Duke Health are testing whether drones can deliver automated external defibrillators (AED) more quickly than emergency crews can respond.
"If we can get treatment within five minutes for a patient with a shockable arrhythmia, survival can be about 50 percent," Starks said.
Survival rates can rise to 70 percent if an AED is used within two or three minutes of someone experiencing cardiac arrest. Some communities have an average response time by ambulance of seven to 12 minutes in urban areas and can exceed 20 minutes out in rural areas.
In the tests, the drones would be used when a 911 call comes in. The drone would launch at the same time as EMS.
"Once they arrive, the drone flies at about 200 feet, it lowers to 100 feet, and then it winches the AED safely to the ground," Starks said.
Then the AED would be lowered to the ground and a 911 dispatcher would guide a bystander on actually how to use it.
"The AED drone overview is probably one of the greatest things in sliced bread," Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough, Jr. said. "I say that because it's a whole other level of patient care."
The goal is to get life-saving equipment into people's hands faster than ever before.
"It's not a bird, not a plane, no, it's not Superman, but it's a drone delivering an AED, saving lives," Kimbrough Jr. said.
The trial is currently taking place in Forsyth County, North Carolina, and the results should be available in the summer of 2027.
