When someone has a heart attack, time matters. But it can take time for fire department medics to arrive at a heart attack scene. For example, for Everett paramedics, it took over six minutes to arrive at an aid call scene in 2020. And without CPR, the odds of surviving a heart attack decreases by as much as 10% with every minute that passes. With CPR, the odds decrease by 3% to 4% per minute.
So, the quicker a heart attack victim can get CPR or a
shock from an AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) the better. Since it can
take time for the fire department to arrive, having someone who knows how to
apply CPR or can use an AED at the scene is important. A heart attack victim who
receives CPR, followed by a defibrillator shock within 5 minutes increases survivability
by a rate of 50% to as much as 75%.
While many people have had CPR training sometimes, they
are not located where someone is having a heart attack. The PulsePoint Respond app
helps to solve this problem.
Recently implemented by Snohomish County 911 and all
but two fire districts in Snohomish County, PulsePoint Respond sends out an
alert to users of the app in the area of a heart attack in progress, in a
public place, as soon as the 911 call is made. This allows a citizen who is
knowledgeable in CPR to quickly arrive, then begin applying CPR while firefighters
are on the way.
A companion app, PulsePoint AED, allows citizens to update
an inventory of AEDs in their community. This information can be used by 911
call takers to help citizens at the scene find the nearest AED.
For more about PulsePoint, check out their website,
Snohomish County 911 has a video that explains how
PulsePoint works,
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=463381164690461&ref=sharing
The Herald:
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/help-in-a-heartbeat-this-app-can-hail-nearby-cpr-expertise/
My Edmonds News:
