Smartphone app Pulse Point helps save baby’s life
With the recent news of how technology and those clever enough to manipulate it can do some pretty terrible things, I thought I’d share a story about how an app was recently used to help save a baby’s life.
Store clerk Lesley Reckford was working at Empire Dance Shop in Spokane, Washington when a baby in the business started turning blue (the report never identifies what the emergency was). Redford, a former lifeguard, immediately dialed 911, put the baby on the ground and began rescue breathing.
While this terrifying event was unfolding, master technician Jeff Olson was just two blocks away working at his job at Perfection Tire. Thanks to an app he had downloaded called Pulse Point, Olson was notified that there was a baby in distress nearby.
Olson told KXLY, “It sounded like an Amber Alert, you know how they come out, and so I looked at it and it said CPR needed and it gave the address.” Olson, who downloaded Pulse Point on his phone because he’s a volunteer EMT, rushed to the scene on foot. He asked “Do you have a medical emergency here?” and was directed to the baby. He put his training to use as he immediately began giving the infant CPR .
Because of the app he was able to assist while fire paramedics were still several minutes away.
Olson added, “I don’t think I’ve ever done CPR on an infant before or even rescue breathing and when I got done I shook for about ten minutes ya know.”
Reckford was grateful for the assist to say the least, “This guy just came out of nowhere and just scooped the baby up and really knew what he was doing which was such a blessing to all of us.”
You know the difference early CPR and defibrillation can make in a Sudden Cardiac Arrest event. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults say they’ve had CPR training, and most would be willing to use CPR or an AED to help save a stranger’s life. Yet only 11% say they’ve used CPR in an actual emergency—that’s a number we can increase together.
When that emergency call comes in your team will be ready. But what if someone was already at the scene, applying lifesaving CPR and defibrillation until the EMS team arrived? With PulsePoint, your dispatch system immediately alerts CPR-trained bystanders about a nearby SCA event through the free PulsePoint Respond mobile app, and lets them know the location of the closest AED.
Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer noted that it was the first save since the city connected Pulse Point to its dispatch center. “The real reason we are so invested in this technology is that you can be a lifesaver. This is one of the only apps that you can download if you know CPR, you can actually save somebody’s life,” Schaeffer said.
UPDATE: KXLY followed up on the baby, named Nolan:
As for how Nolan is doing, he was born with adult-sized kidneys and those are jamming up all his other organs and probably why he went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. While he’s in the hospital at Sacred Heart his family has also been learning CPR so they’re prepared if this ever happens to Nolan again.
Image / KXLY