Drone helps save cardiac arrest patient in Sweden

Photo Credit: Everdrone

An autonomous drone has helped to save the life of a 71-year-old man who was suffering a cardiac arrest.

The drone delivered a defibrillator to a doctor helping the man, who became ill while shovelling snow outside his house in Trollhattan, Sweden.

The man, who didn't wish to be named, told the BBC it was "fantastic" that it arrived so quickly.

The company behind the drone says it meant that defibrillation could begin before the arrival of an ambulance.

Everdrone says it took just over three minutes from the alarm being raised until the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) was delivered.
He was clearing thick snow from his driveway but when the cardiac arrest hit, "everything went black", he said.

His wife later told him how lucky he had been.

Dr Mustafa Ali, who happened to be driving past at the time, rushed to help and told Everdrone: "I was on my way to work at the local hospital when I looked out the car window and saw a man collapsed in his driveway.

"The man had no pulse, so I started doing CPR while asking another bystander to call 112 (the Swedish emergency number).

"Just minutes later, I saw something flying above my head. It was a drone with a defibrillator."

Everdrone chief executive Mats Sallstrom believes the technology played a part in a team effort to save the patient's life.

"It's a medical doctor doing CPR, it's the early defibrillation, it's the treatment in the ambulance on the way to the hospital," he told the BBC.

"It's important to understand that there's a chain of events saving the person's life, and the drone is a very critical part of how that system works."

The drone is a partnership between the Karolinska Institutet - Sweden's largest medical university - together with the national emergency operator SOS Alarm, Region Vastra Gotaland and Everdrone.



PUKmedia / BBC