the essential
To increase the chances of survival during a cardiac arrest, the Tarbes-Lourdes hospital center has entered into an agreement with the Good Samaritan Development Fund.
“Every year, in France, 45,000 people die of cardiac arrest. In 70% of cases, it occurs in front of a witness. However, the survival rate is only 7%.” To hope to increase the chances of survival of Haut-Pyrénées residents struck by sudden death from cardiac arrest, the Tarbes-Lourdes hospital center has entered into an agreement with the Good Samaritan Development Fund.
He has developed an application to geolocate citizen rescuers trained in first aid and the use of a defibrillator. The operation is simple: when a cardiac arrest is reported by the emergency services, the server locates nearby citizen rescuers and sends them an alert reporting the exact location.
Already more than 900 citizen rescuers in the department
“Last year, the application was triggered 20,000 times and once every 20 minutes in France, but we would have to massively recruit citizen rescuers if we want to significantly increase the chances of survival of victims of cardiac arrest” specifies Laurent Istria, development manager at the Good Samaritan Development Fund. Staying Alive lists 330,000 citizen rescuers in France and abroad, including more than 900 in the department. And that’s just the beginning.
The Good Samaritan Development Fund intends to give Samu center 15 access to its software and databases. The director of the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS) Arnaud Fabre, promised to “mobilize” the 1,200 professional and volunteer firefighters who are all “potential rescuers”.
Rémy Buscot, head of the Samu service, hopes that this new device will “remove the barriers to motivate loved ones to have cardiac massages”. For Christian Dublé, director of the hospital center, “the benefit and contribution of this type of application are much more important in a rural area like ours than in a large city”.
