Trained in CPR? Download the PulsePoint Respond App for alerts, and help victims of sudden cardiac arrest.
An estimated 35,000 Canadians suffer out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests annually, with only 8.4% surviving to hospital discharge. Bystander-initiated CPR and use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) double the chance of survival, but unfortunately this doesn’t happen very often.
BC Emergency Health Services and the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation want to improve the chances of survival for victims of sudden cardiac arrest by increasing the number of people in BC who can give hands-only CPR and use an AED.
The
PulsePoint Respond App alerts you if there is a possible out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest within 400 metres of your location anywhere in B.C. If there is a public access defibrillator nearby, the app will tell you where it is. Once you receive the alert and find the patient, you can perform hands-only CPR, and use the AED if available, until professional responders arrive.
Download the PulsePoint app from the
Apple Store or
Google Play Store. The app allows you to set the emergency medical service you want to follow. For B.C., this would be the BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS). (You can follow more than one agency or area – for instance, if you live in B.C. but travel to the US a lot, you can look for local US emergency medical services that might also use PulsePoint.)
The alerts are triggered by 9-1-1 call-takers when someone is thought to be in sudden cardiac arrest, choking, fitting or not breathing. By the time you see the alert, professional first responders will already be on their way, but they may be several minutes away.
Anyone in B.C. who is able to provide CPR to someone experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest is invited to download the PulsePoint app.
- You need to have been trained in hands-only CPR.
- You will also receive details of the closest AED, so if you've been trained to use AEDs you can send someone to fetch it.
- BCEHS call-takers will talk you through using the AED if you are unsure.
- The whole of BC is covered by the PulsePoint app and you will receive alerts if a victim is within 400 metres of your location.
If you receive the alert, look for the patient, perform hands-only CPR and use the AED if available, until professional first responders arrive.
- Respond to alerts only if you feel safe and comfortable doing so. Never leave a child or vulnerable adult alone to respond.
- We recognize that you are not available 24/7 but ask that you are available when you can be.
- Alerts are sent when victims are in public areas. For example, you might receive an alert if a sudden cardiac arrest occurred on the street, but not if it happened inside an office building. Public areas include, but are not limited to, streets, transport hubs, recreation grounds, stores, malls and places of worship.
- AED locations may not be public, but they are all registered for public access.
- Responding to an alert will not delay the dispatch of professional first responders.
- If you are unable to respond you do not need to tell us.
- PulsePoint shows details of motor vehicle incidents, but you will not receive alerts for these and we do not need you to respond to them. They are included to make sure the app is working.
In addition to the PulsePoint CPR App there is a PulsePoint AED Registry.
The registry is a simple-to-use app that helps you to build the public AED registry in your community. We encourage all public venues to register their AEDs on the PulsePoint AED Registry.
