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App Lets Public Respond To Local Cardiac Arrest Cases

American Red Cross Cascades Region
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Flickr.com

Several agencies in Linn County have announced an app to help alert people to heart attacks in their neighborhood.  KLCC’s Brian Bull reports. 

PulsePoint Respond is free and available for iPhone and Android. 

Micah Smith, a lieutenant with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, says users who’ve downloaded the app --and have CPR training-- can be called in to help someone suffering sudden cardiac arrest in a moment’s notice.

“That alert will go to their phone, and on a map they’ll not only see where the event is in proximity to them, they’ll also be able to click a button and see all the AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator) that are within that area...and be able to go and get that, to help them aid in resuscitating that person from that cardiac event.” 

Credit David Bruce Jr. / Flickr.com
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Flickr.com

Smith says such PulsePoint users can administer aid until EMS responders arrive, improving the victim’s chances of survival.

The PulsePoint app was developed in California.  Smith says it’ll cost Linn County $18,000 the first year to implement, then $8,000 every year afterwards.  

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.