When minutes matter, drones carrying defibrillators could save lives in heart emergencies

MILWAUKEE — Autonomous flying drones could deliver life-saving defibrillators to people experiencing cardiac arrest, says a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who’s been involved in the research.

Ambulances aren’t always fast enough, especially in rural areas where an automated external defibrillator, or AED, isn’t available.

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when electrical impulses controlling the heart’s pumping action suddenly malfunction. The heartbeat becomes very irregular or stops, and without treatment, death can occur within minutes.

An AED, which automatically administers an electric shock to restore a normal heartbeat, should be used along with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

Survival rates drop by as much as 10% for each minute that passes without treatment, according to Justin Boutilier, an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering and co-author of several medical journal articles on the use of drones to deliver AEDs.

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Earlier this year, an off-duty doctor in Sweden used an AED autonomous drone to help save a 71-year-old man’s life. Tests have been done in Toronto using AED-outfitted drones in simulated cardiac arrest situations.

Boutilier and professor Timothy Chan, of the University of Toronto, estimated that a network of AED drones could produce between a 42% and 76% higher survival rate among people experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the Toronto area they studied.

Even a modest number of drones could have an effect on response times. One base with three drones, for example, could improve the average response time in Toronto by one minute, according to the research.

The benefit in rural areas could be significant where a drone has the ability to fly 60 miles per hour in a straight line to reach someone in distress.

“Rural areas are easier for drones to fly,” Boutilier said.

An AED is a fairly light payload, and experiments have been done with the device built into the drone itself.

Flying drones could be placed at fire stations. When a cardiac-arrest 911 call comes in, both a drone and an ambulance would be dispatched.

If the drone arrived first, hopefully someone at the scene would know how to use the AED. Then the ambulance crew would administer further care and transport the patient to the hospital.

A research paper Boutilier co-authored depicted possible cardiac-arrest scenarios.

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For example, there’s an elderly couple living in the suburbs. One of them collapses unexpectedly and the other calls 911. The dispatcher suspects a cardiac arrest and immediately sends the nearest ambulance. The dispatcher instructs the bystander to begin CPR and asks if they have access to an AED. The bystander does not and waits for the ambulance to arrive seven minutes later. Paramedics perform CPR and attempt to defibrillate the patient, but it’s too late.

In another scenario, an AED drone is dispatched at the same time as an ambulance. The dispatcher instructs a bystander to begin CPR and to watch for the drone that will land at the front door.

The drone arrives in three minutes, and the dispatcher coaches the bystander to apply the AED and deliver a shock that restarts the heart rhythm. Minutes later, the ambulance arrives.

The drone flies back to its base station where it’s inspected, cleaned, charged and reset for the next call.

AEDs aren’t difficult to use

One issue with AEDs is that bystanders may be reluctant to use them out of fear they might do it wrong and cause harm.

But experts say the automated devices are intended for use by people without medical training and provide visual and audible cues through the steps.

“They’re not difficult to use at all,” said Katie Connolly, executive director of the Milwaukee branch of the American Heart Association.

“Most of the time you open up the device and it talks to you and tells you exactly what to do,” she said.

As a child, Boutilier recalls helping his father, a paramedic and firefighter, with AED demonstrations in his hometown of Niagara Falls, Canada.

He was only 10 years old when he received his CPR and AED certification.

“If a kid can use an AED, so can you,” he said.

Google has obtained a patent for drone delivery of medical supplies including AEDs.

Increasingly, drones have been used for many purposes, from delivering goods to customers' homes to searching for lost hikers.

Boutilier says he’d like to pursue additional research funding on AED drones.

They could, he said, be a “transformative innovation in the provision of emergency care.”