Wireless transmission of vital signs of entrapped victims during search and rescue operations in collapsed buildings

During Urban Search and Rescue (USaR) operations in collapsed buildings, once the entrapped victims are located the extrication starts. The latter is always time consuming whilst in most cases medical monitoring and support of the victim is needed. Monitoring vital signs of victim is quite important but due to the particular post-collapse conditions of the building (fires, gas leaks, tremors/instability), the preferred method would be remote medical monitoring. In this work a commercial off-the-shelf system for victim's vital signs wireless transmission is tested as part of a feasibility study in which non-invasive methods such as breath or sweat analysis can be used for medical monitoring. The capabilities and the limitations of the tested technology are presented and discussed.