It was his PulsePoint app alerting him that someone nearby was in need of CPR.
“I was caught momentarily off-guard,” says Michael, who works for BCEHS as manager of patient care delivery for the Nechako District. “I told my wife, ‘I gotta go!’ and I ran to the call a few blocks away.”
He heard sirens approaching as he hurried to the call, and by the time he got to the patient people were already doing CPR.
He assessed the patient, who thankfully had a pulse and was not in cardiac arrest; but was labouring to breathe.
Local firefighters soon arrived and gave the patient naloxone, which had begun to kick in when paramedics arrived shortly afterwards. The patient survived.
Michael says the heroes were the patient’s friends and family, who responded quickly and called 9-1-1; and the BCEHS dispatch staff who instructed the caller how to do CPR over the phone.
He was pleased how well the PulsePoint app worked.
“The notification came through, and I could see where I needed to go on the map,” Michael says. “I could also see where the closest AED was. PulsePoint did what it was intended to do. It works.”
The
PulsePoint Respond App alerts you if there is a possible victim of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest within 400 metres of your location anywhere in BC. 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.
