A new app launching February 1 in Jackson County could end up saving lives. The app is called PulsePoint Respond and immediately alerts nearby CPR-trained subscribers when someone is having a heart attack in a public place.

According to Jackson County Fire District #3, Emergency Center of Southern Oregon received more than 100,000 911 calls last year. Of those calls, more than 25 percent were asking for emergency services, many for heart-related symptoms and cardiac arrest. The new PulsePoint app will integrate Jackson County’s 911 emergency system.

“The PulsePoint app is like an Amber Alert for sudden cardiac arrest victims,” said Margie Moulin, director of Emergency Communications of Southern Oregon. “It uses location based technology to alert citizens to a sudden cardiac arrest in their immediate vicinity.” The app also notifies users of the closest available defibrillator.

The alerts go to trained CPR citizens, as well as EMS employees.

“By directly alerting people who are CPR-trained and who are in the vicinity- maybe in a business next door, in a theater seat nearby or in the neighborhood – PulsePoint is able to put the right people in the right place at the right time,” said cardiologist Brian Gross, M.D. “They can start CPR in the critical life-saving minutes before EMS responders arrive.”

Jackson County joins seven other Oregon counties that have launched PulsePoint in their communities, including Clackamas, Deschutes, Lincoln, Marion, Multnomah, Polk and Washington counties.

By: Newsroom Staff | January 25, 2017 | KOBI-TV 5 | Original Source