French firm succeeds in drone defibrillators deliveries

Drones could be delivering defibrillators to heart attack victims in France by next summer after a French firm successfully tested their use.

Able to fly a distance of 6km at speeds of 100km/h, the drones should be able to deliver the heart-restarting machines to victims much faster than ambulances can.

“The tests have shown that if someone has a heart attack and there is no defibrillator nearby, it is almost always possible, in an edge-of-town situation, to get one to the site by drone,” Gautier Dhaussy, a co-founder of Delivrone, told The Connexion.

“The scenario is that a Good Samaritan gets to the victim, starts cardiac massage and calls for help using 15 or 18, and the medical team in the control centre lets us know.

“We are able to use maps on laptops or on our mobile phones to pinpoint the location and find somewhere nearby where we can land safely, and then push the button for the pre-positioned and loaded drones to take off, fly to the site, and land nearby.”

The defibrillators weigh 3kg and come with simple-to-follow instructions for their use.

“When a heart stops, every second it does not beat increases the risk of brain damage or more damage to the heart muscle,” said Mr Dhaussy.

“That is why speed is so important.”

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Drone delivery capability

Introduced initially in semi-urban settings, the plan is to extend the service to rural areas when new machines, capable of flying further, are available.

The company has also started flying three regular delivery routes for medical samples between medical centres and hospitals using slower cargo drones with a large, insulated box.

They are between Saint-Lô and Granville in Manche, around the town of l’Aigle in Orne, and between the city of Amiens, Abbeville and Berck in Somme and Pas-de-Calais.

Special no-fly zones for other aircraft had to be negotiated with aviation authorities before the service could be introduced, even though the drones fly at around 30m above the ground and other aircraft should fly no lower than 150m.

“Our service is much faster than going by road, and allows areas without medical laboratories to get blood samples analysed without the patients having to drive a long way,” said Mr Dhaussy.

“It is also good for the environment because we use electric drones.

“We are confident we will be able to establish more routes, although getting permission from the air authorities is hard. They are not used to this sort of request.”

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