James City County partners with Virginia Commonwealth University to test drone defibrillator delivery

A first of its kind study exploring how airborne drones can help improve heart attack survival rates is running in rural James City County. I'm Nick McNamara. This is WHRO News. And it's okay. Yep, it's ready to go. Units okay. From here, it's going to tell us to apply the pads to our patient. Stay calm. Check responsiveness. Call for help. That's Betsy Sink, battalion chief of EMS operations for James City County Fire, demonstrating one of the automated defibrillators that county drones can fly to the scene of a heart attack around Toano. The potential for it to save lives is huge. I think the amount of cardiac arrest patients that we could save with this grew to a national program could be tens of thousands. Dr. Joseph Ornato, one of the studies leads and a longtime cardiac doctor, says about 10% of people who have heart attacks outside of hospitals, survive. Every minute counts, and drones could make a difference. Test runs in James City made it to a call within two minutes, beating on-the-ground vehicles by six minutes. It's proof of concept, and it's a model that is a replicatable model. The American Heart Association is funding the research through the end of June 27. Nick McNamara, WHRO News.