On Friday, May 9th, off-duty TVF&R firefighter Scott Brawner was working out at a Clackamas-area health club when he received an alert through the PulsePoint app on his cell phone that someone nearby was in cardiac arrest.
Using the map presented by the PulsePoint app, Brawner immediately made his way to the reported patient location. In less than a minute, he found the unconscious man in the parking lot outside of the health facility where a security guard had first found him unresponsive and called 9-1-1.
He immediately began hands-only CPR and continued providing chest compressions until paramedics from American Medical Response (AMR) and Clackamas Fire District #1 arrived to provide advanced care.
Brawner downloaded the PulsePoint app when it was first launched by TVF&R just over one year ago. To date, over 7,000 subscribers have followed suit and downloaded this lifesaving technology, indicating that they are ready and willing to act as a citizen responder during a cardiac emergency.
"As a firefighter I know that every minute that passes without a cardiac arrest victim receiving resuscitation, the chances of that person surviving decrease 10 percent." said Brawner, a firefighter paramedic at TVF&R Station 59 in West Linn. "By adopting PulsePoint, agencies are removing much of the fate and luck in survival by involving CPR-trained citizen rescuers in cardiac arrest response."
On Saturday, May 17th, at Adventist Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, Brawner had the opportunity to meet the man he had saved just a week prior. His name is Drew Basse, a 57-year-old truck driver from Milwaukie, Oregon. Brawner, a father of two himself, also met Drew's son Shane, 31, and daughter Staci, 27. It was an emotional meeting filled with gratitude and appreciation as Drew is expected to fully recover with no loss of cognitive function because CPR was administered so quickly.
"This app saved my Dad's life," said Shane Basse, "We're so grateful to the PulsePoint Foundation for creating this life-saving app, Scott Brawner for his heroic actions, and Clackamas Fire for not only their quick response, but for adopting this technology."
The PulsePoint app is available for iPhone and Android and can be downloaded from the iTunes Store(TM) and Google Play(TM). Learn more at www.pulsepoint.org.
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