SAGINAW, MI — It’s going to be easier to save a life in Saginaw.
And yes, there is an app for that.
The smart phone application is PulsePoint, and the Michigan CardioVascular Institute Foundation and Mobile Medical Response are launching it at the sixth annual MCVI Foundation Shocks & Saves charity hockey game, at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 2, prior to the Saginaw Spirit game.
“We’re trying to increase bystander care while ambulance is on the way and reduce the number of people who die from cardiac arrest,” said MCVI Foundation Executive Director Diane Fong.
The free phone application is available for download from the Apple store and Google Play for Android phones.
If someone is out shopping and collapses from cardiac arrest the PulsePoint app would sent out an alert to trained CPR responders who are in the area as soon as the ambulance is dispatched, Fong said.
Cardiac arrest kills about 1,000 people per day across the country. There is a survival rate of about 8 percent, but a victim who receives immediate CPR sees their survival rates triple.
Of people who go into cardiac arrest in public places, 32 percent receive from bystanders, Fong said.
PulsePoint only shows cardiac arrests in public places, she said. The app also would show the location nearby AEDs.
So far, Fong said, the app will show 200 known AEDs in the county, and she encourages people to contact her to add locations of more of the devices.
“It stands to reason that if we can provide more immediate CPR and more immediate defibrillation, see those numbers decrease,” Fong said.
Read the full article by Lindsay Knake, at Michigan Live.