Know CPR? This app can tell you when someone nearby needs help

Mitchell Boatman, Holland Sentinel
·3 min read

HOLLAND — An app alerting community members of sudden cardiac arrest events in their area is coming to Ottawa County.

HeartSafe Holland and the Ottawa County Central Dispatch Authority have partnered to adopt PulsePoint. Through a pair of free mobile apps — PulsePoint Respond and PulsePoint AED — the technology integrates with the county’s emergency response system, notifying participating residents trained in CPR.

When a cardiac event is called into 911 in a public place, PulsePoint Respond will alert users within 0.8 miles, including directions and the location of the closest AED.

PulsePoint AED is a database of AEDs available in the community. It allows users report and update AED locations so emergency responders, dispatch personnel and nearby citizens can find a unit when a cardiac emergency occurs.

An app alerting community members of sudden cardiac arrest events in their area is coming to Ottawa County.
An app alerting community members of sudden cardiac arrest events in their area is coming to Ottawa County.

HeartSafe Holland aims to see the community certified as HeartSafe. There are 13 criteria to meet for the designation, including training 15 percent of the city’s residents in hands-only CPR. According to reporting by WOOD TV-8, all 13 criteria have now been met, and Holland will learn this spring if it has received the designation.

More: 'It's everything': Locals hope to make Holland a HeartSafe Community

Jay Peters, a former city councilmember and part of HeartSafe Holland, told The Sentinel in November that PulsePoint will put training efforts into action.

“The whole purpose ... is to make sure all these 4,500-plus people we’re training all have the ability to get there before an ambulance,” Peters said. “If you get there within two or three minutes and start hands-only compressions and don’t stop until an ambulance or an AED gets there, there’s a greater likelihood they’re going to survive.”

Peters knows firsthand the importance of early CPR. In October 2022, Peters was volunteering with Community Action House when his volunteering partner John Shea went into cardiac arrest. Peters performed CPR, which he'd recently been trained in, while awaiting an ambulance. Shea survived and is also part of HeartSafe Holland.

“You are the first responder until the experts get there with an AED,” Peters said. “Just start chest compressions and don’t stop until someone taps you on the shoulder and says ‘We’ll take over.’ It saves lives.”

Peters said HeartSafe Holland was able to raise funds to pay for PulsePoint, at about $10,000 a year, for “the first couple years.” After that, the group hopes local public safety groups will share the cost.

An event at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, at the Kollen Park Fire Station, 279 Kollen Park Drive, will see leaders from HeartSafe Holland and OCCDA speaking on the benefits of the PulsePoint apps.

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Community partners of HeartSafe Holland include the City of Holland, the Holland Fire Department, Evergreen Commons, the Ottawa County Department of Public Health, the Macatawa Area Coordinating Council, the Rotary Club of Holland, American Medical Response, Holland Hospital and the Jurries Family Foundation.

For more information, visit sites.google.com/view/heartsafe-holland/home.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Know CPR? This app can tell you when someone nearby needs help