Hardly a day goes by watching the news and reality programs that an innovation intended to make our lives easier and better is not introduced. The rewards seem limitless: convenience, the environment, cost-saving, efficiency and safety. Why wouldn’t you run with every invention that comes along? Now hold on a minute. I am impressed with new technology, especially when someone’s genius could save lives. Then reality rears its head, and if I’m paying attention, there’s occasionally a “but, but” buried somewhere.
Hats off to ambulance manufacturers for introducing solar panels as an option, keeping batteries charged up. The industry is also seeing its first hybrid/electric-powered ambulances roll out. If you told me future ambulance units would be hydrogen-powered to save the environment, I’m in. The first concept is established, and the second looks and sounds like it would be feasible to roll out. Further research and development will give way to many applications for both.
On the other hand, recent social media nuggets have me shaking the practical side of my head. A brief video featured an innovative emergency response using a jet pack to transport a paramedic to a remote location. The concept had several friends and family ready to jump in and support the project. Quite frankly, I applied my brakes before the budding responder landed to provide help in the mountainous setting.
There was no price posted in the video for one of the futuristic suits with all the bells, jet engines and whistles. The question of practicality went unanswered. In me, the conservative catastrophist had to follow up on the bit of whimsy floating around in first-responder cyberspace. The story I landed on yielded the basics: the jet suit being reviewed cost $440,000.00/not sure if that is USD. An average ambulance introduced to our Ontario paramedic services currently tricks out at $160,000.00 CDN before radios, computers or medical equipment.
As for practicality, there was another doubt smouldering in the back of my logical paramedic mind. The jet suit's range is about three statute miles or 5km with a maximum flight time of 3-4 minutes; other posts on the suits rated their system for 8 minutes duration. The specifications list the all-up weight, including the pilot, suit, fuel and equipment. No payload was mentioned in the first account, though a subsequent description suggests less than 85kg/187 pounds. That excludes me, ready for takeoff at a svelte 111kg/246 pounds only to sputter and remain helplessly stuck to the ground.
Does anyone see where I’m going with this line of thought? The whole idea had me regressing to the cartoons of Wyle E. Coyote and Roadrunner and the lengths Wyle E. went to catch his prey? My reaction: laughter as I smacked my hand and arm on a table, striking my elbow. I wish it were that easy to tech our way out of a corner these days! The ACME company was ahead of its time in supplying the predator with solutions.
The automated external defibrillator (AED) introduced to the EMS world in the late 1980s as the bridge to advanced life support is now commonplace in public places. What was once a mysterious lifesaver reserved for primary care paramedics can be found mounted to a wall everywhere, from supermarkets to arenas. Training comes with many CPR courses, and in a pinch, citizens need only to open the pouch carrying the device to hear voice prompts to shock a victim back to life. The cost of these units has plummeted to well under $2,000.
The latest novelty to take the AED to a historic response level: I give you the drone. As affordable as a drone capable of lifting a defibrillator might be, there are some logistics to overcome to meet a practical application. Consider the following: experts opine that you have about five minutes to begin CPR to ward off complications. As if a cardiac arrest wasn’t enough of a challenge already. After about nine minutes, brain damage is a likely outcome. A drone response system, hold on for a minute.
Drones would have to be stationed in many locations with trained pilots ready to operate them. The obstacles to landing a small aircraft in a built-up area exceed my imagination. You still have to get the victim help to provide patient care and transport. Our Forest City of nearly 400,000 has over 300 public access defibrillators positioned in high activity areas or high-risk environments yielding above-average life-saving results. The staff required to maintain this ongoing project is efficient and minimal. Just ask the professionals at Middlesex-London Paramedic Service.
Beyond the timely patient care provided in an emergency by good samaritans and paramedics, communication breakdown is one of the biggest roadblocks to a successful outcome. Innovator, storyteller and cartoonist Chester Gould introduced an iconic figure in 1946, Dick Tracy. The detective arrived on the scene sporting a wrist radio, aka telephone, well before its time. It would be decades before real-life responders carried walkie-talkies and cell phones.
Today, men and women in uniform routinely use electronic devices to expedite their service. The comic strip hero from the 40s didn’t exactly bring the technology forward though it might have given some technically inclined youngsters an idea. Cellular telephones and portable radios are something we now take for granted. Heck, my wristwatch can answer my cell phone if I choose. Thank you, Samsung!
A plan that advances success is not a hard sell. People, professionals who dispatch, respond to, and render care in an emergency, are the first and most valuable resource in a crisis. Next, the responders and caregivers are dependent on the technology that aids in that quick and efficient delivery plan. Training, medical devices, communications equipment, vehicles and the people behind that technology and education will make it happen.
Technology is advancing faster today than the wrist radio of the 40s. Youtube content will motivate a tech-savvy kid to someday develop future versions of a jet pack or drone. My seemingly critical review of the concept of rocket-suited paramedics flying through the sky or drones dropping off defibrillators may be short-lived. Sadly, I won’t be that guy on the 6 o’clock news showing them off! I will have to settle for massaging my funny bone to get over my doubts.
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