ACTU.FR. Cardiac arrests in France claim ‘more lives than road traffic accidents’: 50,000 people a year die from a heart attack, around 300 of them in the Manche department. The survival rate currently stands at 5 per cent. The SAUV Life app The smartphone app helps save lives by involving members of the public in the emergency response chain.
The survival rate drops by 10 per cent every minute without chest compressions, whilst the emergency services take an average of 13 minutes to arrive. Starting chest compressions as soon as possible is vital. Every minute really does count. When CPR is administered within 3 minutes, the survival rate is over 70 per cent.”
Dr Thomas Delomas, A&E doctor and deputy director of SAMU 50
Already 800 members in the Manche department
Only immediate action by a bystander close to the victim can improve their chances of survival. The free SAUV Life app provides a solution to this, as we are all potentially close to someone who could be helped.
Dr Lionel Lamhaut, president of the SAUV association and an A&E doctor at the Paris SAMU, confirms this:
'It is in rural areas that the best results are achieved, as emergency services are often further away than in towns.'
You don’t need to be a healthcare professional or a first-aider (two-thirds of those registered with SAUV Life) to join the community of citizen first-aiders, which numbers Already 170,000 members in France, including 800 in the Manche department even though the system is only just being rolled out.
Allow location access
How does it work? You need to download the app on the platforms iOS or Android, sign up and to allow location tracking at all times. Dr Lionel Lamhaut explains:
People cannot be tracked. The location of members is only known when an alert is triggered by the SAMU. Citizen first-aiders who are within a 10-minute walk of someone suffering a cardiac arrest receive a text message and a notification on their phone asking if they are available. Once they accept, the GPS shows them the route to take to reach the victim as quickly as possible. The SAMU calls the citizen rescuer and advises them on how to perform life-saving procedures. Meanwhile, the emergency services are on their way. Under no circumstances is this intended to replace professional emergency services.”
This an additional link in the chain of survival has a proven track record, with “more than 25 patients resuscitated, three-quarters of whom arrived at hospital still alive”.
The roll-out of SAUV Life in France is expected to lead to significantly higher survival rates. To date, 34 departments, including the Manche, have joined the network. 14 per cent of members received an alert.