20 people were searching for a grandfather and his granddaughter in Iowa in dense woods, as sunset approached and made the rescue effort all the more difficult. Luckily, Emergency Management Coordinator David Penton had a clever idea: he called a colleague who owned a drone and told him to bring it to the site as quickly as possible.
Using the coworker's DJI Phantom, the two found Thomas Fitzpatrick (who had begun suffering a heart attack) and his granddaughter within three minutes of takeoff. The drone then hovered overhead so that the first responders could use its location to guide them to the rescue. Penton noted: "Without the help of that drone, time could've been an issue for him."
I thought this story was interesting, and in searching YouTube a bit more, I came across this:
Alec Momont designed a drone defibrillator system meant to arrive in one minute, bypassing issues of traffic and winding road infrastructure for ambulances. He claims a network of these drones would increase survivability of cardiac arrest in Europe from 8 to 80 percent. With all the incidents we hear of with drones, it's good to see some clever and beneficial uses of them.
[via CNN]
Good to see drones getting some positive press!
Side note, you left a sentence from your draft in the second paragraph.
Good catch. Thanks, Greg!
just plain cool. good job drone man
Good news for grandfather and his granddaughter
Unfortunately the ambulance drone isn't getting much traction due to regulation issues.