Are you ready for the next catastrophe, wild fire or medical emergency? And, would you be willing to save a life if it was within your capability to do so? Well, as they say, there’s an app for that!
I was fortunate to have Stephanie English, Community Services Liaison for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, on my radio show recently, Aging with Power, and was excited by the information she shared.
In addition to educating my listeners with fire prevention tips, Stephanie spoke of an amazing app, PulesPoint. PulsePoint is a smart phone application that works with local fire departments to notify citizens of emergencies in their area including medical emergencies, traffic collisions and fires, also sending notification if someone near you could be saved through the administering of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, more commonly known as CPR, until emergency responders arrive. “It’s a new program (with the Los Angeles County Fire Department) but it definitely will help,” said English, “The Fire Department is working to train as many residents as possible to use CPR and using just chest compressions, not mouth to mouth contact.”
“We are seeing good results,” said Richard Price, president and inventor of the PulsePoint app. “Several lives have been saved that have all been attributed to PulsePoint. We see CPR trained citizens and off duty professionals arriving before emergency personnel.”
“By training the general public to know how to use CPR, more people can be saved” English added. “Cardiac arrest survival rates throughout Los Angeles are very low. Using CPR allows just enough oxygenated blood to vital organs to give the person a chance for survival.”
“The app has been downloaded more than 25,000 times,” said Price. “Users can customize notifications from the app and get exact addresses to the public location where emergency is occurring.”
“We know in other states that have trained their communities (in CPR), it makes a huge difference,” English said. “That’s our goal to train as many residents as possible. The Fire Department has an investment to increase the survival rate of cardiac arrests right here in Santa Clarita.”
Anyone who is interested in learning CPR can go to any Los Angeles County Fire Department station for free.
PulsePoint is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Myles McNamara is the owner of Comfort Keepers In-Home Care, and can be reached at 661-287-4200.