Starting Hearts and VailPublic Safety Communications Center launch mobile app to save lives in EagleCounty

PulsePoint app alerts nearby CPRtrained citizens of a victim’s location and closest public access AED

Vail, Colorado – With asimple alert from your phone, you could help save a life.  Starting Hearts and the Vail Public SafetyCommunications Center have partnered to launch the PulsePoint CPR/AED mobileapplication to help increase sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survival rates inEagle County. The PulsePoint app helps improve community response to SCAvictims by enabling “Neighbor Savers,” or citizen bystanders, to providelifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and access public accessautomated external defibrillators (AED).

PulsePoint is tied in to the County’s computer aided dispatch (CAD)system and notifies users who have signed up for the app that are within ahalf-mile of the person in need of emergency intervention.  The app then sends the user a map to thelocation of the person in need of CPR and the nearest AED. 

Individualsexperiencing SCA have only minutes until death, unless a bystander or trained responderrecognizes the symptoms and takes immediate action.  Evenunder the best of circumstances, professionally trained first responders arepotentially seven or more minutes away from conducting life-saving measures.Time is of the essence; without intervention each passing minute the odds ofsurvival drop dramatically. When every second counts, the nearest NeighborSaver could make the difference between life and death.

To receive notifications and help save lives:

1-Download the free PulsePointapp

2-From the agency list, findand follow Vail Public Safety Communications Center

3-Go to settings and select the“CPR” notification box

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

About Vail Public SafetyCommunications Center:

The Vail Public Safety Communications Center is the multi-disciplinepublic safety communications center serving all of Eagle County.

The Communications Center serves as the public safety answering pointfor 9-1-1 calls originating from all Eagle County telephone exchanges,including 9-1-1 call from cell phones in Eagle County.  These calls can range from life or deathassistance, to requests for road conditions, to animal control calls.  As each call is received, the dispatchermakes a determination as to the urgency of the call; the jurisdictionresponsible for response, and takes action on it.

The Communication Center is primary dispatch for twelve public safetyagencies.   The agencies are: Avon PoliceDepartment, Eagle County Airport Fire Department, Eagle County ParamedicServices, Eagle County Sheriffs Office, Eagle Police Department, Eagle River FireProtection District, Greater Eagle Fire Protection District, Gypsum FireProtection District, Minturn Police Department, Rock Creek Volunteer FireDepartment, Vail Fire and Emergency Services, and Vail Police Department.

About Starting Hearts:

Starting Hearts is an Eagle County nonprofit dedicated to saving thelives of Sudden Cardiac Arrest victims in our community.  We provide outreach and education to empowerindividuals to step in and assist while medical professionals are en route.

To save more lives in Eagle County, we providethree primary programs: Call-Push-Shock, which provides basic CPR training andAED use; Nearest AED, which is working to develop a broader network of thedevices that play a critical role in the survival from SCA; and Neighbor Saver,which will connect willing volunteers trained in CPR and AED use with a nearbyvictim in need via the Pulsepoint app