SEDONA, AZ — The Sedona Fire District and Emergency Response Agencies throughout the Verde Valley, in partnership with Arizona State University, announce the adoption of PulsePoint throughout Sedona and the Verde Valley to further their commitment to creating a healthy and civically-engaged community. Nearly, 1,000 people per day experience an Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (AHA 2022). This Regional adoption is only the second in the State of Arizona and reaches all areas serviced by the Cottonwood Public Safety Communications Center (CPSCC).

The benefits of PulsePoint, a free-to-download mobile app, include:

-Alerts CPR-trained citizens of cardiac events in their vicinity so they may administer aid;

-Helps build a comprehensive Automated External Defibrillator (AED) registry;

-Informs the community of emergency activity in real time.

PulsePoint Respond empowers everyday citizens to provide life?saving assistance to victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). PulsePoint Respond App subscribers who have indicated they are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and willing to assist in case of an emergency can be notified if someone nearby is having a SCA and may require CPR. If the cardiac emergency is in a public place, the location-aware application will alert users in the vicinity of the need for CPR simultaneous with the dispatch of advanced medical care. The application also directs these potential rescuers to the exact location of the closest AED.

The companion App, PulsePoint AED, lets you report and update AED locations so that emergency responders, including nearby citizens, can find an AED close to them when a cardiac emergency occurs. You can help build the community registry by using PulsePoint AED to describe the location of an AED and add a picture. This information is then staged for local authorities to verify. After that, the AED location data can be made available to dispatchers and anyone using the PulsePoint Respond App.

“With PulsePoint, we hope to increase bystander involvement in time-sensitive medical calls by increasing the use of CPR and AEDs, while also keeping the community informed, in real time, of all emergency activities,” said Captain J. Wells of the Sedona Fire District. “It gives our residents and visitors the ability to know when a cardiac arrest is occurring close by, locate AEDs in the area, and perform potentially lifesaving CPR while our personnel respond to the scene. It also shows them general information for all 9-1-1 calls to keep them better informed of what’s going on in our community.” Regionally, Cottonwood Public Safety Communications Center dispatches nearly 17,000 Fire/EMS incidents annually, including more than 1,700 cardiac related events.

According to the American Heart Association’s (AHA) 2022 Heart and Stroke Statistics Update, there are more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) annually in the U.S, with nearly 90% of them being fatal.

“In addition to nearby ‘CPR-needed’ notifications, PulsePoint subscribers can follow their local fire department and choose to be notified of significant events that may impact their family. These informational notifications provide an early and automatic heads-up to local threats such as wildland fires, flooding and utility emergencies,” said Richard Price, President of the California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit PulsePoint Foundation. “Improving situational awareness with PulsePoint can help build safer, stronger, and more resilient communities.”

About the PulsePoint Foundation
PulsePoint is a 501(c)(3) public non-profit foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through the use of location-aware mobile devices, PulsePoint is building applications that work with local public safety agencies to improve communications with citizens and professional emergency responders, increase civic engagement, and empower the community to help reduce the millions of annual deaths from sudden cardiac arrest. Learn more at pulsepoint.org or join the conversation at Facebook and Twitter. The free app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play.

About Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Although a heart attack can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), the two are not the same. Sudden Cardiac Arrest is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating unexpectedly, whereas a heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked, but the heart continues to beat. Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur, making it the leading cause of death in the United States. Survival rates nationally for SCA are less than eight percent, but delivery of CPR can sustain life until paramedics arrive by maintaining vital blood flow to the heart and brain. Only about one-third of SCA victims receive bystander CPR. Without CPR, brain damage or death can occur in minutes. The average EMS response time is nine minutes, even in urban settings; after 10 minutes there is little chance of successful resuscitation. The American Heart Association estimates that effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after SCA, can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.