Wearable EMT

A flak jacket that instantly provides drugs to wounded soldiers could save lives

THE QUICKER a soldier wounded on the battlefield can get medical attention, the better his or her chances of survival. Unit medics can administer first-line treatment, but immediate medical assistance isn’t always possible.

That could soon change. An invention by a Marine mechanic can deliver instant first aid— even when bullets are flying. Corporal Matthew Long of the 3rd Maintenance Battalion has designed a modified flak jacket with packages of life-saving drugs such as blood clotters and painkillers behind the flak jacket’s ceramic armor plates. When pierced by a bullet, the packages break open and release their contents into the wound to help stem bleeding, prevent shock and lessen pain.

Ninety percent of deaths on the battlefield occur before wounded troops reach a medical facility, according to a 2013 study of more than 4,500 combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long’s idea, if implemented, could save many of them. “The idea is commendable in its intent,” says Christopher Couldrick, who teaches defense systems engineering at Cranfield University in the U.K. “But feasibility is going to be a big challenge.” Couldrick cites concerns around the “bluntness” of the technique: You can’t control the amount of drugs released or how deeply they go into the body, because drug delivery is purely dependent upon where the bullet breaches the drug packages. Another danger is that soldiers could get an overdose of painkillers if multiple packets are pierced. Another concern, Couldrick says, is how much extra weight these packages would add to a soldier’s flak jacket.

These problems will be tough to solve, but Long now has help—he was one of 17 winners of the inaugural Corps’ Logistics Innovation Challenge, part of a push for innovation across the Department of Defense. That will give him what many inventors dream of—the opportunity to develop and test a prototype.