Lifesaving App That Helped Fairfax Man Debuts In Marin County

FAIRFAX, CA — When Al Hart came back to life after flat-lining, he knew somebody needed to be thanked. What the Fairfax resident didn’t know was that the developers of a smartphone app would need equal thanks with those who responded to the emergency message sent out by that app.

The free PulsePoint app, available on the App Store and Google Play, locates CPR-trained people near someone in a public place experiencing a cardiac arrest. Marin County recently adopted the technology so that residents can be alerted, in real time, to cardiac emergencies. The local availability of the app was introduced February 14 and Marin first responder agencies began to use it.

“There were all those amazing people who were there. It was pure luck,” Al Hart said of the roadside rescue last summer. “PulsePoint had a huge factor in it, though. I don’t think I would be upright today without it.”

An avid runner and triathlete, Al recently celebrated his 60th birthday, a milestone that was looking unlikely when he collapsed on a training run in June 2019. A friend, Albert Dyrness, found Al in a heap on the side of a road within the Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area in Pleasanton.

Dyrness flagged down motorists who stopped, called 9-1-1, and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The emergency call automatically activated PulsePoint, which alerted CPR-trained people within a quarter-mile radius of Al’s location. Meantime, two brothers driving by the scene together, both young firefighter cadets, pulled over and took over CPR. Al’s eyes had rolled back into his head and he was turning blue.

That could’ve been it for Al, a Bay Area resident since his teens and a Fairfax resident since 1997. He and his wife, Trish, have been married 28 years and he works as the director of technology for the Menlo Park City School District. Trish, a competitive triathlete as well, was on the same training run that day and was just a few minutes behind Al.

“We didn’t know anything about PulsePoint then,” Trish said. “One of the people who stopped to help said the 9-1-1 call had triggered the PulsePoint alert, but it went over my head at the time.”

The PulsePoint alert also shows the location of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) near the person in distress. In Al’s case, several lifeguards from the nearby Shadow Cliffs pool received the PulsePoint alert, grabbed their AED, made their way to Al and shocked his heart. Paramedics then arrived, shot Al with adrenaline, and continued advanced life support while transporting Al to the local hospital, Valley Memorial. He was transferred to Kaiser in Terra Linda a few days later while in an induced coma.

Eight days after he suffered the cardiac arrest, Al was released from the hospital. He rested for six weeks, then returned to work on a part-time basis.

“The doctors said Al got quality assistance right away, and we owe so much to all of them, including the emergency dispatchers and PulsePoint,” Trish said. “The people who ended up shocking him (with the AED) were young kids in college, and I think it’s so neat that they will go through life knowing that they saved a person’s life … and so will their parents.”

PulsePoint is headquartered in Pleasanton, not far from where Al collapsed. Richard Price was chief of the nearby San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District when he created PulsePoint. Today the nonprofit foundation is working to expand the network of availability and develop other communications between first responders and trained residents.

“We met him and heard his story,” Trish said. “He heard an ambulance one day and it stopped in the building next door to where he was. It turned out that a man there had been in cardiac arrest. He said to himself, ‘I could’ve jumped in and helped had I known,’ and that was the initial ah-ha moment that got this started.”

“All around us are people who are trained in CPR,” Al said. “(Price) found a need, and I’m thankful he did. It feels so good to know that other counties like Marin see the value in this tool, and they’re jumping on board to use it.”

PulsePoint, created in 2009, is available in more than 3,800 communities in 42 states with nearly 2 million users. Agencies in Sonoma, Contra Costa, Napa, Alameda are among those already putting it to use. The app is fully endorsed by the Marin County Fire Chiefs Association, the Marin County Emergency Medical Services Agency (Marin EMS), the Marin County Fire Department, and the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services.

Al had a chance to thank everyone who participated in his rescue. He got recertified as a CPR provider and is encouraging everybody to go through CPR training. And he, like Trish, is telling everybody to download the PulsePoint app.

“My story could’ve been a tragic one, but a lot of good has come out of it,” Al said. “A few months ago, somebody asked me what I wanted to Christmas. I said, ‘Santa came in June and gave me my life.’ Now, all I want is time. That’s the gift.”

— Story provided by Marin County Fire Department for publication