Florida man's drone systems delivers life-saving defibrillators

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Every day in the U.S., the hearts of more than 1,000 people just stop beating. It's called sudden cardiac arrest, and the key to survival is shocking the heart back to life in less than  five minutes.

A Winter Park, Florida man says he has a way to save more sudden heart attack victims using drones, through the Archer First Response System.   The idea is to deploy the system to large planned communities and deliver Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, by drone.

If someone drops to the ground of sudden cardiac arrest, every resident in the community will have access to the Archer First Response smartphone application. They pull out their phone, open the app, push a button and the process begins.

The drone flies to the victim, with a defibrillator slung underneath.  The defibrillator is delivered to its destination and dropped off, so that whoever called for it can start attempting to save a life.

"The system will go up and hover over the victim for about eight to ten minutes as well, providing EMTs easy access and easy visibility to find the find the victim," explains Gordon Folkes. 

Folkes unveiled his system in St. Augustine earlier this week.  He hopes to have them up and flying in Florida communities by November.   More online at Archer First Response Systems.