With more than 250,000 cases per year, cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the European Union. Only 10 percent of those affected survive. Nine out of ten cardiac arrests in the EU are fatal. The reason: The reason: survival without permanent damage is only likely if resuscitation is started within less than 5 minutes. Chest compressions, ventilations, and defibrillation cannot wait until an ambulance arrives. But people who are trained in these skills are mostly nearby the emergency location.
Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the most time-critical and life-threatening emergencies. Those who are not resuscitated will die.
Those who receive help too late may survive, but with severe and permanent damage.
In Europe, surviving a cardiac arrest – and remaining in good health – is unfortunately a matter of pure luck.
... to reach the patient.
In fact, the emergency services very rarely reach the patient within 5 minutes of receiving the emergency call. The emergency services cannot arrive in time to ensure a (good) chance of survival after a cardiac arrest.
One in four patients with cardiac arrest suffers from cardiac arrhythmia. In such cases, a targeted electric shock delivered by an automated external defibrillator (AED) can help.
In the best case scenario, the heart will resume beating normally after the use of an AED. Patients then have a high chance of continuing to lead a normal life without restrictions, as famous examples of top athletes show.
Since 2018, the non-profit association Region of Lifesavers (Region der Lebensretter e.V.) has established an app-based system that enables emergency control centres to locate and alert registered (community) first responders via smartphone in the immediate vicinity of the emergency. These first responders, who arrive within the first 3-5 minutes after a cardiac arrest, can double or even quadruple the patient's chances of survival.
Through the intelligent interaction of all components of the Region of Lifesavers system, an additional 25,000 lives or even more could be saved each year in Europe – many of them without any impairment.
When the local dispatch centre receives an emergency call with suspected cardiac arrest, the ‘Region of Lifesavers’ system is automatically activated. At the same time as the emergency services, registered professional first responders receive a pre-alert via our app. Four of them are selected for the call-out, based on who can arrive fastest, ahead of the emergency services.
This is how our life-saving system works.
If the first responders sent to a cardiac arrest do not have a defibrillator with them, one of them will be sent to a publicly available AED, provided that a first defibrillation can be performed before the ambulance arrives. Data from the AED register is used for routing. AEDs save lives!
Where can you find an AED? Click here for our AED map.
Our first responders save lives – in their free time, on holiday or on their way to work. In order to ensure high-quality resuscitation in line with the current resuscitation guidelines, basic medical qualifications, operational experience and regular training are required. Only first responders who are of legal age and medically trained are alerted via the lifesaver app. Their suitability is checked by regional and organisational administrators. Would you like to help?
All interested and qualified first responders can register directly in our app. The self-sign-on process takes data protection regulations into account and includes a confidentiality agreement. Users are activated after they have uploaded their certificates and after the qualifications have been checked by the responsible administrators in the respective regions.
The system Region of Lifesavers is designed for nationwide operation: all first responders registered in the system are alerted in all control centre areas connected to the system in the same country. All participating cities and districts benefit from this large cross-regional pool of community first responders.
In Germany more than 80 regions with over 18 million inhabitants trust in our system.
Community first responders can help even without equipment: All you need to deliver chest compressions are two hands. However, suitable equipment increases the visibility and affiliation of community first responders in action and significantly improves resuscitation measures. Together with our partners PAX and rettungszeug.com, we have developed a wide range of equipment to provide our first responders with the best possible support in action.
Region of Lifesavers supports all community first responders in our project with first-level support, where control centre dispatchers, emergency service personnel and emergency doctors are available to answer technical, medical and organisational questions. You can send us your enquiry at support_at_regionderlebensretter.de. Comprehensive information and FAQs can be found on our support page.
After a first responder mission all involved responders can request psychosocial support directly in the app if needed.
The life-saving system Region of Lifesavers has achieved extremely short response times (see our publications) and we are getting better every year: Our organisation is non-profit and we constantly invest in further development of the most sophisticated alerting algorithms to reduce the shortest possible response times and the shortest possible time until the first defibrillation. This continuous development is based on the research findings of our interdisciplinary scientific working group, which includes experts in the field of resuscitation research.
Region of Lifesavers fully complies with the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) guidelines for resuscitation. Responsible administrators of every region can gain all data according to the reporting standard for first responder systems for quality assurance and research purposes.
