Smartphone app helps save baby’s life

Man got alert from Pulse Point app

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Post Falls baby is alive after suffering a medical emergency only to be saved thanks to a mechanic who learned of the child’s condition from a smartphone app.

The incident started at Empire Dance Shop at 131 South Sherman. Store clerk Lesley Reckord, a former lifeguard, heard a baby was turning blue and called 911.

“When you hear that you just pick up the phone and call 911, so I did that and I saw her and she was just saying, ‘He’s not breathing, he’s not breathing,'” Reckord said.

Reckord then put the one month old baby on the ground and began rescue breathing.

Meanwhile Jeff Olson, who works as a master technician at Perfection Tire, located at 604 E. 2nd Avenue, learned about the baby being in distress through Pulse Point, a smartphone app. Through the GPS on his phone, Pulse Point knew he was less than two blocks away and sent Olson a notification.

“It sounded like an Amber Alert, you know how they come out, and so I looked at it and it said CPR needed and it gave the address,” Olson explained.

Olson just happened to be a volunteer EMT for Deer Park Ambulance, so he left the garage and raced to the store two blocks away.

“I asked the lady standing outside, ‘Do you have a medical emergency here?’ And she said it’s an infant and he’s blue. I just kind of, you know, just suck up a little bit,” he said.

“This guy just came out of nowhere and just scooped the baby up and really knew what he was doing which was such a blessing to all of us,” Reckord said.

Olson knew his lifesaving skills were needed because he had registered his phone with the Pulse Point app. While fire paramedics were still several minutes away the app put Olson in the right place at the right time to keep the baby alive.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done CPR on an infant before or even rescue breathing and when I got done I shook for about ten minutes ya know,” he said.

This is the first save since the Spokane Fire Department connected the Pulse Point to its dispatch center.

“The real reason we are so invested in this technology is that you can be a lifesaver,” Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said. “This is one of the only apps that you can download if you know CPR, you can actually save somebody’s life.”