28 | JANUARY 23 • 2020 

Saving Lives

Tukel brothers 
develop drone to 
deliver life-saving 
medications.

CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER

Jews in the D

M

atthew and Connor 
Tukel have some big 
things in common: 
They happen to be brothers; 
they are both in medical school; 
they graduated from Hillel 
Day School and Frankel Jewish 
Academy; and, just recent-
ly, they reinvented the way 
anti-overdose drugs such as nal-
oxone are delivered to patients 
by using a drone.
The brothers discovered that a 
drone can deliver anti-overdose 
medication, EpiPens, anticon-
vulsant medications and even 
automatic defibrillators.
“We had both been working 
at Detroit Receiving Hospital 
in the emergency depart-
ment and we observed a lot of 
patients who were coming into 
the emergency room who had 
overdosed on heroin,
” Matthew 

said. “We learned that a lot of 
patients were dying because first 
responders weren’
t able to reach 
them fast enough.
”
During that time, Matthew 
and Connor were working with 
drone technology and experi-
enced an aha! moment: Why 
not create a drone to deliver 
medications in high-risk situa-
tions?
“Our drone is not meant 
to replace first responders, 
but instead supplement their 
efforts,
” Matthew said. “The 
problem that we were exposed 
to was that medication wasn’
t 
reaching the patients fast 
enough or there wasn’
t enough 
staff to help.
”
Conner added, “The point is 
that there is this readily accessi-
ble treatment that can be given 
by anyone. This is about bolster-
ing access and enabling bystand-

ers to help these patients.
”
Their drone is designed with 
a high-intensity headlamp, a 
first-person view camera, pay-
load delivery system and shock-
proof container for carrying 
intranasal naloxone.
“For first responders, if they 
have a patient in dangerous 
areas where there’
s not a lot of 
light or a high prevalence of 
crime, this could be a tool to 
survey the area before they head 
in,
” Connor said. 
Matthew, 25, is in his third 
year of medical school at Wayne 
State University. Connor, 22, is 
in his first year at Icahn School 
of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 
Manhattan.
Once they solidified their 
idea, the pair acquired the best 
consumer drone and rebuilt it 
for the naloxone delivery. They 
then obtained an emergency 

Matthew and Connor Tukel, right, 
with their friend Albert Jose, 
who helped design the drone.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MATTHEW TUKEL