If you don't have a smartphone today, think about all the things you could be missing out on: obsessively checking your email, sending a derp face to your friends through SnapChat and playing Clash of Clans until your fingers bleed. You also could miss out on an even greater and more important opportunity: to save someone's life.
Yes, folks. Technology doesn't have to just be used for wasting time; it can also be used for good. And a recent story out of Spokane, Wash. proves that.
A mechanic was able to save a baby's life after an app alerted him to the child's medical emergency, KXLY first reported. The infant stopped breathing and suddenly turned blue at a dance shop, and the store clerk Lesley Reckford immediately called 911. Reckford is a former lifeguard, and she put the baby on the ground to perform rescue breathing on him.
While that was happening, Jeff Olson, a mechanic and volunteer EMT not too far away was alerted about the incident through a smartphone app called Pulse Point, which he had downloaded on his phone. The Spokane Fire Department uses the app to send an alert to EMTs in close vicinity to where the medical emergency is taking place.
Olson arrived at the scene and performed CPR on the infant, who is now successfully recovering in the hospital. This was the first save since the Spokane Fire Department registered its dispatch center with the app. Check out the full news report from KXLY below.
In case this lovely story has inspired you, there's plenty of smartphone apps out there in addition to Pulse Point that can really help you out in an emergency and even save lives. Some you might want to consider having on your phone include iTriage, which gives you easy-to-follow instructions on what to do in a medical emergency, SafeTrek, which helps you discreetly connect with the police in case of an emergency and the American Red Cross Tornado App, which helps you prepare for the natural disaster and stay safe during it.
Now go out and use your smartphone to save the world.
