A Colorado Springs man who was trapped under a load of rubble following last week’s 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Haiti was able to use a first-aid app on his iPhone to treat his wounds, giving him enough of a window to survive until he was finally rescued.
Trapped under the collapsed Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Dan Wooley’s leg was severely injured. He remained mobile enough, though, to whip out his iPhone and fire up a $3.99 app called “Pocket First Aid & CPR” (iTunes link), which according to the app description, includes hundreds of pages with educational illustrations covering every sort of predicament you might encounter, from burns and seizures to diabetic emergencies.
Using the light from his iPhone, Wooley was able to illuminate the injured part of his body to figure out what was wrong – turns out, it was a broken foot. Then, using the iPhone app mentioned above, Wooley was successfully able to control the excessive bleeding pouring out from his leg and the back of his head by using his shirt and sock as makeshift tourniquets. Wooley also used the iPhone app to look up ways to prevent him from going into shock.
And what exactly was Wooley doing in Haiti in the first place, you might be wondering. Turns out he was there filming a documentary on Haiti’s poverty stricken children.
Naturally, Wooley has a review of the app that saved his life up on iTunes. It reads in part: “Consulted this app, while trapped under Hotel Montana in Haiti earthquake to treat excessive bleeding and shock. Helped me stay alive until I was rescued 64 hours later.
If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.
Via NBC Miami
Mon, Jan 25, 2010
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