Ordinary citizens are being called on to help save lives in Sarasota County with the aid of a smartphone app that notifies users when a person nearby has gone into cardiac arrest.
The PulsePoint app, which can be downloaded onto a smartphone, shows users within a quarter-mile how to locate and use public-access Automated External Defibrillators and how to perform hands-only CPR. Early bystander CPR can double or triple the chances of survival, Sarasota County EMS Chief Carson Sanders during a press conference Thursday at Fire Station No. 16.
“This was a team approach. It required a commitment and implementation for many parts of the county and other departments,” said Sanders of the app that currently is used in more than 2,800 communities nationwide. PulsePoint is a nonprofit organization.
More than 350,000 people have out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year, according to Sanders. He said it takes emergency personnel an average of five minutes to reach them.