A man in his 60s survived an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Borås, Sweden, on July 19 after an autonomous Everdrone aircraft delivered an automated external defibrillator (AED) to the scene ahead of the ambulance. A bystander took the winched-down device and, with the emergency dispatcher coaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) over the phone, shocked the man’s heart back into rhythm before ambulance crews arrived.
The drone launched automatically as part of Västra Götaland Region’s ordinary emergency dispatch, the same alarm chain that rolls the ambulance. Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio reported the aircraft was airborne 15 seconds after the alert.
I have covered Everdrone since January 2022, when the same Swedish operator logged the first cardiac arrest save in medical history credited to a drone-delivered defibrillator. That case needed a doctor who happened to be driving past. This one needed a bystander and a phone.
The Drone Was Airborne 15 Seconds After the Alarm
When a 112 call about a suspected cardiac arrest reaches SOS Alarm in Västra Götaland, the region’s healthcare dispatch center alerts the nearest drone base, and on July 19 the Borås aircraft lifted off 15 seconds later, reaching the patient ahead of every ground unit. It was the first live drone response in Borås, and local paper Borås Tidning was first with the story.
Four conditions have to line up before a drone launches, according to the region’s account: the call must point to a suspected cardiac arrest, the address must sit inside a coverage zone, dispatchers must judge the aircraft faster than the ambulance, and the weather must allow flight. On July 19, every piece fell into place.
The aircraft cruises at 60 meters (197 feet). Over the address, it descends to 30 meters (98 feet) and lowers the AED on a winch line. A bystander took the device and attached it under the dispatcher’s guidance, and the AED analyzed the man’s heart rhythm and delivered a shock. His pulse came back at the scene, and the ambulance crew and firefighters from Södra Älvsborgs Räddningstjänstförbund continued care once they arrived.
“The defibrillator, together with CPR and a fast response, made the difference,” said Younis Khalid, regional area manager for prehospital care, in remarks translated from Swedish. Magnus Kristiansson, section lead at the region’s innovation platform and a doctoral researcher at Karolinska Institutet, has spoken with the patient since. The man is recovering and gave the region his blessing to tell the story.
Six Drone Bases Now Cover 300,000 Residents in Western Sweden
Västra Götaland Region (VGR) and Everdrone jointly run Drone Emergency Medical Services (DEMS), a network of six operational drone bases that covers more than 300,000 residents across western Sweden and sends an AED drone automatically, in parallel with the ambulance, whenever dispatchers suspect a cardiac arrest. Bases include Vänersborg, Uddevalla, Trollhättan, Mölndal, and Borås, with Skövde planned next.
The numbers explain why the region pays for it. In the Borås area, VGR’s own measurements put the average drone response at 3 to 3.5 minutes against 7 to 8 minutes for an ambulance. Roughly 1,000 cardiac arrests happen in the region each year, and only about one in ten people struck outside a hospital survives.
“In cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the first few minutes are critical,” Everdrone CEO Mats Sällström said in the company’s announcement of the Borås save.
The Borås base is barely older than the rescue it flew. It went operational in early May with Everdrone’s new E3 aircraft and added roughly 63,000 residents to the network, according to the company. Less than three months later, it logged its first save.
What began as a research trial in 2020 has been funded as ordinary healthcare since 2023, and VGR describes itself as the first region in the world to run drones in live prehospital emergency response. DEMS also operates in France, and Everdrone signed Region Stockholm in February, with deployment planned during 2026.
Everdrone’s First Save Needed a Passing Doctor
The world’s first cardiac arrest save credited to a drone-delivered AED happened in Trollhättan, Sweden, in December 2021, when an Everdrone aircraft brought a defibrillator to a 71-year-old man in just over three minutes and a doctor who happened to drive past used it. I reported that case in January 2022, and the aircraft that flew it was a DJI Matrice 600 Pro. Everdrone has since moved to purpose-built platforms of its own.
The medicine has not changed in the four and a half years between the two saves. What changed is who stands at the end of the winch line. Trollhättan needed a trained physician on the right street at the right minute. Borås needed a bystander willing to follow a dispatcher’s voice.
The United States is now flying its first live trials of the same idea. Duke Health began dispatching AED drones to real 911 calls in Clemmons, North Carolina, in July, the first American study of its kind, and James City County, Virginia joined on August 1. Those flights run as research programs under case-by-case Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approvals. The Swedish flights run as ordinary dispatch. Americans suffer more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year, the number those trials exist to shrink.
DroneXL’s Take
The hardware stopped being the story years ago. Everdrone proved a drone could carry an AED across a Swedish town back when it still flew a modified DJI. What Sweden built since then is a dispatch rule: a 112 call comes in, software checks coverage and weather, and an aircraft is climbing 15 seconds later. Nobody at SOS Alarm decided to try something experimental on July 19. The system did what it was built to do, and a man in his 60s is recovering because the whole chain, drone included, held.
I want American readers to sit with the gap. Sweden folded AED drones into routine dispatch across six bases while the United States, in the same window, got its first two study sites airborne. Duke’s Clemmons program and the James City County pilot are real progress, and I have covered both with enthusiasm. They are also research projects wrapped in case-by-case approvals, in a country with more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests a year. The missing piece is regulatory, and it has a docket number.
Part 108, the FAA’s pending framework for routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight, has been sitting at the White House regulations office since July 10, and DOT said last week the wait is nearly over. Today marks exactly one year since the FAA published the Part 108 proposal. When the final rule lands, AED delivery ought to be the first mission through the door. It has a living survivor in Borås and a funded American template already flying in North Carolina.
Watch two things this fall: what emerges from OIRA, and whether Duke’s study hits its target of an AED on scene in under five minutes for more than half its calls. Sweden already knows how that story ends.
Sources: VGRfokus, Air Cargo Week, Sveriges Radio, Everdrone.
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.
