CENTRAL OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Concertgoers at Stinson Park got an unexpected lesson in lifesaving when a flash mob broke into CPR, set to the beat of the classic song "Stayin' Alive."
With October being Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month and Oct. 16 marking "World Restart a Heart Day," the American Heart Association teamed up with NewView Training and the Omaha Fire Department to push a new app called PulsePoint Respond.
The app connects directly to the local dispatch system to mobilize bystanders.
"The app is embedded with our dispatch center, so when a call comes in for cardiac arrest the app will scan the area around the victim and will send out alerts to anyone close by who is willing to do CPR," Dave Keber Paramedic Supervisor with the Omaha Fire Department said.
The app is free to download, and organizers say if you're able to help in a cardiac arrest emergency you could double or triple someone's chances of surviving.
"In order to survive cardiac arrest we really need the community to step up and provide CPR. It's usually about 4 to 6 minutes before EMS gets there, and that's enough for a 40 to 60% decline in survivability," Keber said.
For CPR to be effective, the song "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees offers a helpful guide to the proper pace.
"The rate that the song 'Stayin' Alive' by the Bee Gees gets you on is a rate of 100 to 120, and that's where we always want to see people compress," said Bethany Clark, founder of NewView Training.
Training more members of the community could mean more help is always within reach.
"The more people we can have trained in the community and having people within arms reach to respond in those emergencies can literally be the difference between life and death," Clark said.
Right now the PulsePoint app is available in Sarpy, Douglas, Washington and Lincoln counties, but the Omaha Fire Department says they hope to expand to more counties in the near future.
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