Technology is a double edged sword, and can be use to both free and enslave us. Drone technology for example, is traditionally associated with its military application, but as this technology reaches the hands of the average people, they are beginning to do amazing things with it.
One recent drone project that hopes to save lives, instead of taking them, is the vision of Alec Momont, an engineering graduate at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands.
Momont has created an ambulance drone that can drastically improve the response time for paramedics. The drone can fly at speeds of up to 60 mph, and is stocked with basic medical equipment that can be used at the scene of an emergency.
“It is essential that the right medical care is provided within the first few minutes of a cardiac arrest. If we can get to an emergency scene faster, we can save many lives and facilitate the recovery of many patients. This especially applies to emergencies such as heart failure, drownings, traumas and respiratory problems, and it has become possible because life-saving technologies, such as a defibrillator, can now be designed small enough to be transported by a drone,” Momont said.
The first version of the drone will be specifically designed to deal with cardiac arrest calls, and will come stocked with a defibrillator that can be used at the scene. The drone operator will be able to see speak to people on the scene through the drone and tell them how to use the equipment.
“Some 800,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest in the EU every year, and only 8 percent survive. The main reason for this is the relatively long response time of the emergency services (approx. 10 minutes), while brain death and fatalities occur within four to six minutes. The ambulance drone can get a defibrillator to a patient inside a 12 km2 zone within one minute. This response speed increases the chance of survival following a cardiac arrest from eight percent to 80 percent,” Momont said.
Momount says that if his idea is adopted widely that it could “save hundreds of lives in the next five years.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-rEI4bezWc?feature=player_embedded]
