CPR WITH ALEXA!

The voice-activated Amazon Echo device answers thousands of everyday requests, like setting a timer, playing music, ordering a pizza or changing a thermostat.

Now, the device includes new information that can help save someone’s life.

Alexa, the friendly voice of the Amazon Echo, for the first time provides instructions for CPR as well as heart attack and stroke warning signs.

Cardiac Arrest in the home...

1) As this is a skill, please ensure that you activate it first. Simply ask "Alexa, activate emergency CPR".

2) In the unfortunate event that somebody was to go into cardiac arrest and you did not know what to do, calmly say "Alexa, Emergency CPR"

Alexa will start to assist you by providing a step by step guide including CPR instructions for adults and teens.

What is a cardiac arrest?

In a cardiac arrest, a person’s heart goes into a life threatening rhythm and stops

pumping blood around their body and to their brain. It causes the person to fall

unconscious and stop breathing (or stop breathing normally).

A heart attack is the most common cause of cardiac arrest, but not everyone that

has a heart attack will have a cardiac arrest. There are several other potential

causes of cardiac arrest, including other heart problems, severe bleeding, choking or

electrocution.

How common is cardiac arrest? How many people survive?

In the UK there are over 30,000 cardiac arrests a year outside of hospital – in homes

and communities – where the emergency medical services attempt resuscitation.

However, less than one in ten victims of cardiac arrest survive to be discharged from

hospital.

Survival rates in the UK lag behind those in other developed countries and areas

such as Norway, where the survival rate is 25%, North Holland where the survival

rate is 21%, and Seattle in the US where the survival rate is 20%. Although these

figures have to be interpreted carefully, as there are differences in the way they are

presented, there is consensus that we can – and must - improve survival rates in the

UK. In some cases, CPR can double the chances of survival from out of hospital cardiac

arrest.

It is therefore vital that anyone that witnesses a cardiac arrest, or finds a

victim, has the skills, ability and confidence to step in and help.