Crime & Safety

San Ramon's PulsePoint Phone Application Helped Saved Life of Cardiac Arrest Victim

Off-duty firefighter Scott Brawner helped save a man found unconscious in the parking lot outside of the health club.

The PulsePoint application, that was conceived and piloted by the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, made it possible for life-saving CPR to be performed after the application notified a nearby off-duty firefighter in ClackamasOR. The application worked just as designed and helped save a life.

On Friday, May 9, 2014 off-duty firefighter Scott Brawner was working out at a local health club when he received an alert through PulsePoint, a 9-1-1 connected mobile app designed to alert CPR-trained citizens of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) emergencies in their proximity.

[Related article: San Ramon Valley Cardiac Arrest App Nominated For a Webby Award]

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Using the map presented by the PulsePoint app, Scott immediately made his way to the reported patient location. In less than a minute, Scott found a man unconscious in the parking lot outside of the health club.  A security guard first found the man and called 9-1-1 to report that he was unresponsive and not breathing.  

Scott immediately assessed and began hands-only CPR. He continued providing chest compressions until paramedics from American Medical Response (AMR) and Clackamas Fire District #1 arrived to provide advanced care.

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“As a firefighter I know that every minute that passes without a SCA victim receiving resuscitation, the chances of that person surviving decrease 10 percent.” said Scott Brawner, Firefighter/Paramedic with Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue (TVF&R). “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 17, 2014, at Adventist Medical Center in PortlandOregon, Scott 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 MilwaukieOregon. Scott 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. The family was especially interested in learning more about the “miracle app” they had heard played such a key role in Drew’s survival.

“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.”

“San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District is proud of its history with the PulsePoint application and we are excited that it played such an important role in the positive outcome of this incident,” said Fire Chief Paige Meyer. 

The app on Scott’s phone is from the non-profit PulsePoint Foundation, originally pioneered by the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District. The technology was gifted by San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District to the PulsePoint Foundation to enable the worldwide sharing of the application.  The app is designed to reduce collapse-to-CPR and collapse-to-defibrillation times by increasing citizen awareness of cardiac events beyond a traditional “witnessed” area and by displaying the precise location of nearby public access defibrillators (AEDs).

The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District is an internationally accredited special district that provides all-risk fire, rescue and emergency medical services to the communities of Alamo, Blackhawk, the Town of Danville, Diablo, the City of San Ramon, the southern area of Morgan Territory and theTassajara Valley, in Northern California (Contra Costa County). The District’s service area encompasses approximately 155 square miles and serves a population of 170,000.

—Information submitted by San Ramon Valley Fire


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