Should I ask Alexa what to do in a Cardiac Arrest?
If you’ve been on one of our first aid courses you will know that we love to embrace technology. It can certainly enhance our performance in first aid and really help the outcome for the casualty. So – should I ask Alexa what to do in a Cardiac Arrest?
When we started doing first aid in 1991 mobile phones were just creeping onto the market and certainly weren’t in general circulation. Now we are able to call for help from most locations. Even that is being improved with the new iPhone being able to text as a sat phone would.
We’ve seen defibrillators introduced to the general public with them being commonplace in public spaces. Defibrillator drones are even being tested in this country.
Smart watches can now give you an ECG and Oxygen Saturation as well as your bog standard heart rate. My watch will even prepare a PDF of my ECG so that it can be sent to a Doctor.
There are various apps available to help you with first aid and can now even enable you to volunteer to help out. The GoodSAM app allows you to enter your details and the Ambulance service can see your location and dispatch you to a cardiac arrest if they happen near to where you are. What3Words is another great addition and being able to quickly pinpoint our location in an emergency. Getting the team in green to the incident as quickly as you can be the difference between life and death.
We discuss all of the above on our first aid courses and help people that might not be too tech savvy to learn to use tech that could help them in an emergency. Should I ask Alexa what to do in a Cardiac Arrest?
But – and it is a big but sometimes we hear of things that really should not be used in an emergency.
A few weeks ago we saw this advice on a first aid training company’s Facebook page.
“In the event of someone in the home of where and ‘Alexa’ is present having a sudden Cardiac Arrest and you’re unsure what to do SHOUT ‘Alexa EMERGENCY CPR’”.
So – Should I ask Alexa what to do in a Cardiac Arrest?
Now that might sound like good advice – you’re not sure how to do CPR or can’t remember so you ask for help from Alexa. The only problem is that you need help from the emergency services. You are taking to a smart speaker when you should be speaking to 999.
The first thing Alexa tells you to do is to call the emergency services! So you are trying to talk to 999 and Alexa is bleating instructions at you. We’ve tried it – and it will put you off. 999 are superbly trained to walk you through what to do and you just do as you’re told. By using technology in this instance you are only making your life more difficult and complicated. Put simply, the longer you delay the call to 999 or if you are distracted and give incorrect information the less chance that person has of surviving the cardiac arrest.
If someone is in Cardiac Arrest – please call 999. Alexa is great for lots of things but leave this one to the professionals.
If you would like to learn about how tech can help please book onto one of our first aid courses. https://bit.ly/3bQgDu
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