This app used by the SLO Fire Department can help save lives

Last year, a man suffered a heart attack at a concert while local emergency room physician Rachel May was close by at the same show. Because May wasn’t aware of the crisis until emergency responders arrived about 10 minutes later, it was too late to save the man’s life.

But if May had been alerted by an app now in use by the San Luis Obispo Fire Department, she could have administered CPR as soon as possible.

The Fire Department is the first agency in San Luis Obispo County to implement the app, called PulsePoint, which is costing the city $18,000 in its first year — with an additional $8,000 per year for ongoing maintenance. The city is using revenue from its Measure G sales tax fund for the program.

The department will demonstrate how to use the PulsePoint smartphone app at the Downtown SLO Farmers Market at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. A hands-on CPR training session also will be given.

“I can very easily see this app saving a life in the first year of implementation — and possibly save many more lives,” San Luis Obispo fire Chief Garret Olson said. “But I think even if it saves just one life, it will be well worth the investment in this program.”

Anyone can download the app, created by former San Ramon Valley fire Chief Richard Price. The program was developed by engineers at the Silicon Valley-based company Workday.

Those who download the app will receive an alert on their phone when someone in the vicinity is suffering from a heart attack and 911 has been called. The city’s emergency dispatch system will automatically send a signal to those who are logged on to the app.

The good Samaritans then can be routed to the person in trouble and start CPR until a medical response team arrives. They also can be alerted to the nearest automated external defibrillator in the vicinity. More than 100 AEDs are kept ready for emergency use in various locations around the city.

Olson said the city’s goal is to respond to an emergency within four minutes, though a heart attack can still kill someone or cause them to suffer serious brain damage in that time if no CPR is administered. With people positioned to help around the city, the odds of survival greatly increase.

“For every minute that passes, a patient’s chance of surviving a heart attack drops by 10 percent,” Olson said. “And under normal conditions, a person can die within a couple of minutes of first suffering cardiac arrest.”

Olson said the app offers information about how to handle emergency situations and refreshers on CPR. Olson said a potential scenario is for someone using the app to assume responsibility for CPR on the heart attack victim while urging another bystander to grab the nearest AED.

The app applies only to those in need of help in public places and not in their homes. The reason for using the app only in public settings is to protect people’s privacy in their homes and to avoid the potential for anyone to take advantage of the emergency and burglarize a residence.

“Even if someone isn’t trained in CPR, they can be coached through the process of saving someone’s life until medical help arrives,” Olson said. “That’s a much better option than doing nothing at all.”

Someone who isn’t trained in CPR also could receive instructions through a 911 dispatcher’s coaching in an emergency situation.

Olson said people ideally will get CPR training to prepare for an emergency, but the app also has enough information to save a life through a tutorial in CPR that can be read in advance of an emergency.

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 8:47 PM with the headline "This app used by the SLO Fire Department can help save lives."