You too can be a lifesaver by learning simple hands-only CPR and how to use an AED (Automated External Defibrillator). Public accessible AED's are located in 20 City facilities and in another dozen private businesses and locations in and around SLO. CPR and AED Training is readily available through local chapters of the American Heart Association and American Red Cross.  

When you're in the City of San Luis Obispo, we can dispatch you to provide lifesaving CPR to someone in need if you download the FREE PulsePoint app for your smartphone. Simply go to your smartphones application store, search for PulsePoint, download, and activate! This is an amazing tool that can make the difference between life and death! For more information on PulsePoint, visit their website at PulsePoint.org. 

General Information and Statistics:

• Sudden Cardiac Arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States, claiming an estimated 325,000 lives each year.
• During a sudden cardiac arrest, heart function ceases; abruptly and without warning. When this occurs, the heart is no longer able to pump blood to the rest of the body, and in some 95% of victims, death occurs.
• Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the heart's electrical system malfunctions and the heart stops beating.
• The most common cause of sudden cardiac arrest is a disturbance in the heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation.
• AEDs play a critical role in the "Chain of Survival" which can help save the lives of victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). The Chain of Survival is a four-step intervention process developed by the American Heart Association.

1. Early Access - First, as soon as an emergency is recognized, call 911.
2. Early CPR - The critical link that buys time between the first link (call 911) and the third link (use the AED). Begin Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).
3. Early Defibrillation - Most sudden cardiac arrest victims are in ventricular fibrillation (VF). Use an AED to Treat VF.
4. Early Advanced Care - The fourth is advanced care provided by highly trained EMS personnel called paramedics.

• It is essential that defibrillation be administered immediately following the cardiac arrest. If the heart does not return to a regular rhythm within 5-7 minutes, this fibrillation could be fatal. If defibrillated within the first minute of collapse, the victim’s chances for survival are close to 90%. For every minute that defibrillation is delayed, survival decreases by 7 percent to 10 percent.  If it is delayed by more than 10 minutes, the chance of survival in adults is less than 5 percent.

This community, through Measure G funding, invested in an enhancement to our Dispatch Software, called Quickest Route so firefighter-paramedics are dispatched to emergency based on their actual location rather than fixed response zones.

The City has partnered with other government agencies, local businesses, organizations, and the John W. Callahan Heart Safe Fund to deploy over 100 Automatic External Defibrillators in the community, including AEDs at all City facilities, the Chamber of Commerce Office and the Office of the Downtown Association.

Our citizens are our last and best hope to reverse fatal heart attacks in the community. Your actions will enhance survival rates by as much as 50%!

Please download the free app, learn the simple steps of hands only CPR, and join our team. If you can pump up a bicycle tire, you are more than capable of performing CPR and saving a life.

It may be the most cherished experience of your life, and it most certainly will be the most cherish expression of love for your community felt by the victims of cardiac arrest and their loved ones

What are you waiting for? Become CPR/AED trained today. Sign up for a class through the local chapter of the American Red Cross or American Heart Association today!