Drone Carrying a Defibrillator Saves Its First Heart Attack Patient in Sweden (theverge.com) 28
A man in Sweden is alive today thanks to -- in part -- a drone. The 71-year-old had a heart attack while shoveling snow in December and was resuscitated by a nearby doctor after a drone flew in a defibrillator, Everdrone reported this week. From a report: Someone having a heart attack needs help within 10 minutes in order to survive. Everdrone's Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery (EMADE) service is designed to deliver help as quickly as possible -- it allows emergency dispatchers to send a drone carrying the device to a caller's home, kickstarting the lifesaving process before the ambulance arrives at their home. In this particular patient's case, it took three minutes for the services to deliver the defibrillator to his home. A bystander, who happened to be a doctor on the way to his job, used the AED on the patient after providing CPR. The drone was developed with the Center for Resuscitation Science at Karolinska Institutet, SOS Alarm, and Region Vastra Gotaland. "This is an excellent real-world example of how Everdrone's cutting edge drone technology, fully integrated with emergency dispatch, can minimize the time for access to live-saving AED equipment," Everdrone CEO Mats Sallstrpm said.
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> People that routinely eat animals should keep them on hand
We do keep them on hand. They're called "pets" in my country.
Re: Defibrilators (Score:2)
Well, except that only applies to red meat, not white meat or fish, and also doesn't apply when the meat is consumed in conjunction with food or drink that prevents arteries getting clogged, and doesn't apply when people exercise sufficiently.
Technically.. (Score:4, Insightful)
A bystander, who happened to be a doctor
A doctor saved his life. Now the drone delivery of an AED is great news, particularly if road or traffic conditions would delay paramedics, but the doctor really should get the credit. I suppose that's not newsworthty, but it feels weird that the passing doctor is an afterthought.
Re:Technically.. (Score:5, Informative)
A doctor saved his life. Now the drone delivery of an AED is great news, particularly if road or traffic conditions would delay paramedics, but the doctor really should get the credit. I suppose that's not newsworthty, but it feels weird that the passing doctor is an afterthought.
The doctor "just" did CPR, something you could learn from a YouTube video. He had great presence of mind and knew when to intervene, however you don't save someone's life with CPR alone unless an AED becomes available, either in an ambulance, because one is local or because a drone brings you one. Furthermore, you can't keep up effective CPR for very long so very often the ambulance arrives too late.
Doctor + no AED => almost certainly dead patient
AED + nobody => dead patient.
Drone AED + you after a few videos => quite a good chance
Drone AED + Doctor => really good chance.
I don't think it's either or, but the biggest thing the Doctor did was first realising there's a problem and secondly making sure that someone else was calling for the help as he did CPR which caused the drone to arrive.
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Well, that and this only really working in a small country like Sweden. Bigger country distance is literally going to be a killer, drone or not.
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CLEARY he's talking about the reasonable and rational case where all AED's are stored in Seattle, Washington AND all heart attacks happen in Miami thereby winning this entire thread as per the pedant rules of slashdot communication.
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Lmao
Re: Technically.. (Score:2)
So in other words, the doctor with his quick thinking and caring saved his life. Lesson of the story: We need drone technology and we need people like that doctor. Since people like that doctor are rare, it makes sense for defib drones to be placed in strategic locations around a town for when such an emergency occurs. The drone can be deployed and a doctor can be called upon to assist via video, if the drones can have telepresence features such as a display screen on it.
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So in other words, the doctor with his quick thinking and caring saved his life.
I in no way disagree on this or the facts. I just think that there's a bit of dangerous emphasis in this story. Lots of people are thinking "I hope there's a doctor around if I have a problem". Instead they should be thinking "I should make sure my friends watch this great video [youtube.com] so that if a heart attack like this happens, we can help too, like that man from Sweden, who happened to be a doctor".
Ideally, you'd want to take a first aid course but even an online basic first aid video [youtube.com] might be enough to be us
Re: Technically.. (Score:2)
Yeah that is a fair point. More people should definitely know those things and have CPR certification which is quite easy to get.
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Drone AED + you after a few videos => quite a good chance
Have you ever used An *Automated* External Defib? There's no videos to watch. You literally open it and it not only talks you through the process of how to use it in real time, but also tells you how to perform CPR.
and secondly making sure that someone else was calling for the help as he did CPR
This cannot be understated enough. People are quick to think about CPR but it's a stopgap measure at best to keep blood moving while *actual* help arrives.
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Drone AED + you after a few videos => quite a good chance
Have you ever used An *Automated* External Defib? There's no videos to watch. You literally open it and it not only talks you through the process of how to use it in real time, but also tells you how to perform CPR.
Yes, I have used one, not on a person, but even on a special dummy set up to allow simulation of everything including the CPR. They are great. The one thing they can't do is tell you what to do before they arrive on scene which is where the videos will be really helpful. In fact the first random CPR and AED video of YouTube [youtube.com] will make almost anyone much more useful in this situation.
and secondly making sure that someone else was calling for the help as he did CPR
This cannot be understated enough. People are quick to think about CPR but it's a stopgap measure at best to keep blood moving while *actual* help arrives.
Exactly. The advice is that if you can't directly call for help or send someone else for help you shouldn't start CPR. Goi
Re:Technically.. (Score:4, Informative)
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I like that better, perhaps even going to 'essential' if the doctor is confidant that the AED being there ahead of an ambulance arrival was critical in how well he can survive.
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A doctor saved his life. Now the drone delivery of an AED is great news
No. It doesn't matter how good you are at CPR the odds of saving anyone with a heart attack without the use of an defibrillator are minimal. In heart attack victims CPR is performed until an ambulance arrives and an AED is used, or until they take them to the hospital where an normal defib will be used.
What type of heart attack? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What type of heart attack? (Score:5, Informative)
Not just fibrillation but also tachycardia. But while you're saying it's "useless for other types of heart attacks" you should understand what a heart attack actually is. The heart almost never stops beating by itself. The overwhelming majority of cardiac arrests due to a heart attack occur in conjunction or due to fibrillation or tachycardia.
A heart attack victim stands a good chance if they are hooked up to an AED. And even if ultimately you do get there too late and the heart is in complete arrest, or there was one of the very few edge cases which resulted in complete arrest without a shockable rhythm, hooking an AED up is still the first priority since it will a) talk you though CPR, and b) monitor the heart to see if a shockable rhythm arises as a result of CPR.
An AED is *always* helpful even if it doesn't shock a patient.
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You clicked, and that's all that matters. Journalism has been dead for a while now. Going beyond the simple copy and paste from a news service is beyond the job description of whoever posted it on theverge...
Imagine explaining this to someone in 1970 (Score:3)
It's like living in a science fiction novel. Whether it's utopian or dystopian is an interesting question.
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False dichotomy. I know I never would have thought that possible, but here we are.
Our world is, in a lot of ways, in a headlong slide into dystopia. Government corruption is either at an all-time high or we're just more aware of it. And that seems to be worldwide, not just isolated pockets like it used to appear to be. Human Rights violations are seeming to increase even among what used to be considered first world countries. People are pitted against each other by big talkers and average intelligence
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Yeah, next thing you know it's drones carrying fibrillators everywhere making people's hearts stop.
One step at a time lad. (Score:2)
Skynet (Score:2)
Now I'm envisioning swarms of drones flying around shooting defibrillator paddles at innocent victims.
Hmmm. (Score:2)
It's a good step, but another good step would be easier access to vests with built-in ECG/EKG, as these can apparently detect the build-up to a heart attack 10-30 minutes in advance.
30 mins is more than long enough to get an ambulance to all but the very remotest of places and, in many cases, would also be sufficient tone to get the patient to a hospital.
It wouldn't eliminate the need for such drones, as the aforementioned vests are best limited to those in greatest need, but it might lessen the strain on t