Citation

Bäckman A, Hollenberg J, Svensson L, Ringh M, Nordberg P, Djärv T, Forsberg S, Hernborg O, Claesson A. Air Med. J. 2018; 37(3): 170-173.

Affiliation

Department of medicine at the Center for Resuscitation Science, Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Electronic address: andreas.claesson@ki.se.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.amj.2018.01.007

PMID

29735229

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The feasibility and potential of using drones for providing flotation devices in cases of drowning have not yet been assessed. We hypothesize that a drone carrying an inflatable life buoy is a faster way to provide flotation compared with traditional methods. The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility and efficiency of using a drone for delivering and providing flotation support to conscious simulated drowning victims.

METHODS: A simulation study was performed with a simulated drowning victim 100 m from the shore. A drone (DJI Phantom 4; dji, Shenzhen, China) equipped with an inflatable life buoy of 60 N was compared with traditional surf rescue swimming for providing flotation. The primary outcome was delay (minutes:seconds).

RESULTS: A total number of 30 rescues were performed with a median time to delivery of the floating device of 30 seconds (interquartile range [IQR] = 24-32 seconds) for the drone compared with 65 seconds (IQR = 60-77 seconds) with traditional rescue swimming (P <.001). The drone had an accuracy of 100% in dropping the inflatable life buoy < 5 m from the victim, with a median of 1 m (IQR = 1-2 m).

CONCLUSION: Using drones to deliver inflatable life buoys is safe and may be a faster method to provide early flotation devices to conscious drowning victims compared with rescue swimming.

Copyright © 2018 Air Medical Journal Associates. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en