Anyone can learn CPR – and everyone should! Sadly, 70 percent of Americans may feel helpless to act during a cardiac emergency because they either do not know how to administer CPR or their training has significantly lapsed.

Cardiac arrests are more common than you think, and they can happen to anyone at any time.

• Nearly 383,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually, and 88 percent of cardiac arrests occur at home. Put very simply: The life you save with CPR is mostly likely to be someone you love
• Four out of five cardiac arrests happen at home. Statistically speaking, if called on to administer CPR in an emergency, the life you save is likely to be someone at home: a child, a spouse, a parent or a friend.
• Effective bystander CPR provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim’s chance of survival, but only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander.
• Many victims appear healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors.
• Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when electrical impulses in the heart become rapid or chaotic, which causes the heart to suddenly stop beating. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is blocked. A heart attack may cause cardiac arrest.
• Failure to act in a cardiac emergency can lead to unnecessary deaths.

* Cardiac arrest statistics sourced from American Heart Association.

PulsePoint CPR/AED smartphone application to help improve sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survival rates. The PulsePoint app helps improve community response to SCA victims by enabling citizen bystanders to provide lifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and access a nearby public access automated external defibrillator (AED).

The Pulse Point app was sponsored by Ellis Medicine and was collaboratively implemented by Saratoga County and Clifton Park Halfmoon Emergency Corps.

SCA is a leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for an estimated 325,000 deaths each year or 1,000 deaths per day. The American Heart Association estimates that effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival. However, only about one quarter of SCA victims receive bystander CPR and even fewer receive a potentially lifesaving therapeutic shock from a public access AED. Improving bystander CPR rates and access to AEDs is critical to survival.

If you know CPR, you can be a life saver. The first step is to download the app!

How to sign up for PulsePoint

• Download the PulsePoint app on any IOS or Android device.
• Agree to the app terms.
• If you are CPR-trained and willing to help, select “Yes” to opt-in and receive notifications.
• Allow PulsePoint to access your location.
• Alerts will be sent for emergencies occurring within a quarter-mile.

Sources: Medic One Foundation and PulsePoint