KENT, Ohio — The City of Kent is partnering with Kent State and University Hospitals to help save lives. And it all starts with your smartphone.

  • The idea is to get help to a person even before paramedics arrive
  • UH says this app could very well be the difference between life and death
  • For those not certified, the Kent Fire Department is hosting CPR classes in the coming months

“Nationwide there's like 360,000 cardiac arrests a year. So, 1000 a day,” said Lt. Craig Peeps of the Kent Fire Department. 

Cardiac arrest is often fatal when not treated immediately. Lt. Peeps says the department wanted to make sure people have a higher chance for survival. 

“It takes between three and five minutes for us to get there. And then, with every minute that you're not breathing or don't have a pulse, your chance of survival goes down,” said Peeps. 

Now, the city, in partnership with Kent State University and University Hospitals, is utilizing the PulsePoint app. It’s a tool that dispatchers can use to alert everyday people who are CPR-certified about a cardiac arrest in their area and direct them to the nearest AED.

“But we want to use this PulsePoint app to quadruple the people available for CPR, in that timeframe, to get it to the person when they need it fast, until we get there,” said Peeps. 

“The sooner CPR is started, it keeps the blood flowing through...hitting all the vital organs — your brain, your heart, your muscles, your kidneys, all those vital organs, and keeps oxygenated blood going through the body until those first responders can respond and do a more definitive care,” said UH Chest Pain Coordinator Nick Reynolds

University Hospitals is using the app to build upon the work they have already been doing.

“Annually, University Hospitals trains 25,000 people in CPR. And so, putting those resources that we've educated to use with the PulsePoint app just really helps the community, as well as all the residents, and get, you know, get that definitive care quicker,” said Reynolds.

The Kent Fire Department will begin hosting CPR classes both on campus and in the community.