The Eugene-Springfield Fire Department has launched a smartphone app called PulsePoint. It allows average citizens to be emergency responders.
This could happen to anyone, anywhere:
“911 Emergency.”
“I think my husband’s having a heart attack.”
“Is he breathing?”
“No”
“Alright stay on the line with me. Someone is sending help.”
This emergency re-creation by fire department personnel is meant to demonstrate how PulsePoint app users can save a life.
The first help to arrive is a citizen who was alerted of this cardiac arrest happening nearby- by the app on his smart phone. He performs hands-only CPR until paramedics arrive to take over. This could cut the average emergency response time of four minutes in half.
Officialas say every minute a patient is in cardiac arrest without treatment, survival rate decreases by 10%.
The PulsePoint app is free to download and uses GPS technology to notify subscribers within a quarter mile of a cardiac arrest event. The app also provides instruction on compression-only CPR.