• Anders Bäckman, Jacob Hollenberg, Leif Svensson, Mattias Ringh, Per Nordberg, Therese Djärv, Sune Forsberg, Olof Hernborg, and Andreas Claesson.
• Department of medicine at the Center for Resuscitation Science, Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
• Air Med. J. 2018 May 1; 37 (3): 170-173.

ObjectiveThe 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.MethodsA 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).ResultsA 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).ConclusionUsing 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.

12 keywords...

hide…