You’re Dying on the Street. A Drone Might Be Your Only Hope.

It sounds far-fetched, but one doctor believes aerial drones could prevent fatal overdoses and heart attacks

Drones are deployed during a demonstration at the Los Angeles Fire Department ahead of DJI’s AirWorks conference in Los Angeles, California, on September 23, 2019. Photo: Robyn Beck/Getty Images

Imagine walking toward a busy intersection and seeing a teenager passed out on the sidewalk, fentanyl patches peeking out of their pocket. You call 911 and tell them you think a kid has overdosed on opioids. The dispatcher says they’ll send an ambulance, but it might take 10 minutes or longer. You don’t know how long the teen’s been out and worry they might die before help arrives.

It’s situations like these that pediatrician Mark Hanna considered while walking to his job as a resident physician at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Hanna tells OneZero that he saw ambulances “struggling to get past” rush-hour traffic and wondered whether they’d actually reach patients before it was too late.

But then he had a thought: “Are drones even faster than ambulances?”

According to Hanna’s research comparing the ability of drones and ambulances to reach the scene of a medical emergency, the answer is yes, and his work suggests there’s potential to greatly improve emergency care in crowded cities. At the American Academy of Pediatrics conference in New Orleans on Friday, Hanna will present…