By LORI TUCKER
6 News Anchor/Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Seventy-three-year old Charles Pless says he's alive today because his son knows how to perform cardio pulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.
Pless remembers the day he collapsed in 2004. "He found me. I'd turned blue and was in cardiac arrest."
Pless' son learned CPR in a class offered at his office. But now there's a CPR app available for your iPhone, Droid or Blackberry. It guides you through CPR with step-by-step instructions.
The TEAM LIFE CPR app is a rescue app that provides you with an easy-to-use visual and audio guide to CPR on your mobile device at all times. It was developed by a former paramedic.
According to the American Heart Association, only 32 percent of cardiac arrest victims get CPR from a bystander. As a result, only eight percent who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital survive it.
However, local doctors will tell you the CPR app isn't something to download during an emergency.
"This was not meant to take the place of a CPR course, which is extremely important," said Dr. Anthony Wilson, with UT Medical Center.
Dr. Wilson says instead, the app can function as a reinforcement to what you learned in a CPR course.
You can purchase the app for $1.99.
The TEAM LIFE CPR app includes a demonstration of how to perform CPR.
