SOUTH Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) has launched an app that is capable of telling anyone in the UK where their nearest automatic external defibrillator is should they come across someone in cardiac arrest.

It will also guide them through how to carry out effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The free-to-download Save a Life app uses GPS co-ordinates to show a user where their closest defibrillator is in Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire.

As well as storing the details of approximately 2,300 defibrillators within the South Central region, the app also contains videos which demonstrate how to carry out CPR on adults, children and infants.

It also dispells the most commonly held misconceptions about the risks of attempting CPR.

Professor Charles Deakin, SCAS assistant medical director, said: “Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of premature death, but with immediate treatment many lives can be saved. Seconds really do count, so by using the Save a Life app someone can save many seconds, if not minutes, in using a defibrillator on a patient even before an ambulance arrives. This gives the person a greater chance of survival.”