GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — You don’t need to know someone to make a difference in their life. And that's the idea behind an app that's allowing strangers to work together to help cardiac arrest victims in West Michigan.
Pulse Point is an app growing in necessity that helps cardiac arrest victims get in touch with trained CPR community members and medical professionals with the tap of a button.
Angela Lound is a firefighter EMT and expressed the need for the app.
“When we show up on scene and we see a community member or a bystander doing CPR, that is fantastic," she said. "It may not be perfect, but anything that they're doing is increasing that person's chance of survival."
The Pulse Point app alerts users to a nearby sudden cardiac arrest so they can start CPR and find an AED before first responders arrive. Heart Safe Holland has partnered with Ottawa County Central Dispatch to use this app in the county.
Lisa Cardillo is a cardiac arrest survivor and says she wants people to know the warning signs, which can be the difference between life and death.
“So my warning signs were a sudden and sharp chest pain that felt like it was going in through my chest and coming out of my back," she said. "And it wasn't a pain that I had ever felt in my life. I had never felt anything like that. It was completely out of the blue. And then nausea, intense nausea."
Cardiac arrest and heart attack can look different for everyone. EMT and responders like Lound assess numerous factors after receiving an alert.
“When we get a call for a potential cardiac arrest, when we get on scene right away, we're going to assess what are called the ABCs: Your airway, breathing and circulation," Lound said. "So we want to check to see does the person have a pulse, are they breathing normally? What is their skin tone look like you know, are they sweating?”
The Pulse Point app works within a quarter mile of someone else who calls 911. From their GPS location, they're witnessing a cardiac arrest happen. You also receive a notice on your phone with that location, and the nearest AED.
“And then you can say, hey, I'm here to help, what can I do. And then also be talking to dispatchers who will help step you through everything. There's also CPR instructions on the app. So if you maybe forgot a step along the way from training, it will walk you through everything."
The Pulse Point app is free to use and download from the App Store. The program also offers classes to help teach the community.
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