Pulse Point: New App Can Turn A Bystander Into A First Responder

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A new app can turn a bystander into a first responder.

Drew Basse, 57, was recently recovering in the hospital following a massive heart attack. He survived, and could thank a smartphone app and Good Samaritan Scott Brawner for saving him.

"If you have this app ,or if you just have the ability to help your neighbor, don't even think about it -- just do the right thing," Brawner told CBS 2's Tracee Carrasco.

The app is called Pulse Point. It's activated when someone calls 911 about a cardiac arrest. An alert then goes out to app users trained in CPR within a quarter-mile of the emergency.

Good Samaritans then rush to offer aide until professional help arrives.

Brawner, an off duty firefighter, got the alert that Basse was having a heart attack in a nearby parking garage.

"It makes such a big difference in everybody's life," Brawner said.

On Wednesday, Jersey City Medical Center will be the first hospital in New Jersey to adopt this life saving technology.

"This is an opportunity for us to really increase our cardiac arrest survivability for every minute that someone goes without CPR their chance of survival decreases by 10 percent," explained Robert Luckritz, director of EMA at the Jersey City Medical Center.

Jersey City Medical Center EMA has a response rate of six minutes, two minutes below the national average. They're hoping that the app will help get users the help that they need even faster.

"This is an application that will help us get citizen responders onto the scene before EMS arrives," Luckritz explained.

With sudden cardiac arrest every second counts and could be a matter of life and death.

The Pulse Point app also offers instructions on how to perform CPR, and shows users where the closest automated external defibrillator is located.

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