A drone delivers the donor organ in just six minutes

Technological innovations improve our lives in many places. Be it through better accessibility via smartphone, optimal planning of traffic flows or banking from the sofa. A new field of application for drones could soon save our lives, as demonstrated by an initial test in Toronto.

Because when it comes to organ transplants, every second counts. Often organs have to be removed, packaged and stored in cold storage immediately after death is determined. In many cases, the donor and recipient are also not in the same hospital, which means that the organ is faced with a dangerous transport. Drones could shorten this significantly.

In total, it took a drone about six minutes to transport an organ from the Toronto Western to the Toronto General Hospital, with 18 months of planning and the risk of the transport going wrong. A donor lung was transported in a special transport box that would otherwise have taken twice as long to travel.

Problems often arise when transplanting this organ, as donor lungs often take too long to get to the recipient and do not receive sufficient oxygen. Therefore, the now successful first test can be seen as particularly positive. It was no coincidence that the scene was in Toronto: this is also where the first lung transplant was performed (1983).

The team behind the technology would now like to reach further milestones with the newfound optimism. Although drone transport can save lives over short distances, in the future one would also like to carry out transports over 160 kilometers, later over 320 kilometers. The focus will initially remain on North America.

Own opinion:

It is amazing what a wide range of applications drones can now have. On the one hand as a weapon that brings a lot of suffering, on the other hand as a lifesaver that can bring us valuable years in the future. I hope that further attempts will also prove to be successful and that one day we will also see the technology in this country.

Via Gizmodo