It happens without warning. One moment someone is standing next to you. The next — they're on the floor, unresponsive, not breathing. Your heart races. Your mind goes blank. And every second that passes matters more than you know.

Step 1: Check for safety and response

Before touching the person, quickly scan the environment. Is there a danger — traffic, electricity, falling objects? If it's safe to approach, kneel beside them and tap their shoulders firmly. Shout loudly: "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

If there is no response and they are not breathing normally — this is a cardiac arrest. Act immediately.

Step 2: Call for help — right now

Call 112 immediately. If other people are around, point directly at one person and say: "You — call 112 now." Being specific is critical — in a crowd, everyone assumes someone else will call.

While waiting for emergency services, you must begin CPR. The ambulance takes 8–10 minutes on average. The brain starts dying in 4. CPR bridges that gap.

Step 3: Position your hands correctly

Kneel beside the person. Place the heel of one hand on the center of their chest — directly on the breastbone, between the nipples. Place your other hand on top and interlock your fingers. Keep your arms straight.

• Do not press on the ribs — only the center of the chest
• Do not bend your elbows while compressing
• Do keep your shoulders directly above your hands

Step 4: Begin compressions

Push down hard and fast — at least 5–6 centimetres deep. The correct rate is 100 to 120 compressions per minute — roughly the beat of the song "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees.

Allow the chest to fully rise between each compression. Do not remove your hands from the chest. Do not stop until the ambulance arrives or the person starts breathing normally.

Step 5: Give rescue breaths (if trained)

After every 30 compressions, give 2 rescue breaths — tilt the head back, lift the chin, pinch the nose, and breathe into the mouth until the chest rises. If you are not trained or uncomfortable giving breaths — hands-only CPR is still highly effective. Keep compressing.

How ReRhythm helps

ReRhythm's AR CPR guidance does all of this for you in real time. The camera opens, overlays exactly where to place your hands, tracks your compression rate live, and coaches you through every step with voice instructions. You don't need to remember any of this under pressure — the app does it for you.

Download ReRhythm free. Because the next person who collapses near you could be someone you love. And now — you'll know exactly what to do.

Here is something most people don't know: most cardiac arrests don't happen without warning. The body sends signals — sometimes hours, sometimes days before a major event. The tragedy is that most people either don't recognise them or choose to ignore them.

1. Chest pain or pressure

The most well-known sign — but often misunderstood. It doesn't always feel like sharp pain. Many describe it as a tightness, squeezing, or heaviness in the center of the chest. It may come and go. It may feel like indigestion. Don't assume it will pass.

2. Shortness of breath

Feeling suddenly breathless — even without physical exertion — is a serious warning sign. If your parent mentions they feel out of breath just climbing stairs or sitting still, take it seriously.

3. Pain that spreads to the arm, jaw or back

Pain radiating from the chest to the left arm, jaw, neck or back is a classic sign of a cardiac event. It happens because the heart and these areas share nerve pathways. Many people dismiss jaw or back pain — don't.

4. Cold sweats suddenly

Breaking into a cold sweat without reason — especially combined with chest discomfort — is the body's stress response to a failing heart. It looks like normal sweating but feels different — clammy, cold, and sudden.

5. Nausea or vomiting

Many heart attack patients, especially women, experience nausea as a primary symptom. It is often dismissed as food poisoning or indigestion. When combined with any other symptom on this list — treat it as an emergency.

6. Extreme fatigue for no reason

Feeling unusually exhausted for days before a cardiac event is very common, especially in women. If someone in your family suddenly has no energy to do their normal daily activities — pay attention.

7. Dizziness or lightheadedness

A sudden feeling of dizziness or nearly fainting — especially with chest discomfort or shortness of breath — means the heart is not pumping enough blood to the brain. This is a medical emergency.

What to do if you see these signs

• Call 112 immediately — don't wait to see if it gets better
• Make the person sit or lie down comfortably
• Do not give food or water
• Stay with them — don't leave them alone
• If they become unresponsive — begin CPR immediately

Download ReRhythm's Prevention module to get a personalised heart risk assessment for your family — free.

When most people think of Augmented Reality, they think of games like Pokémon GO or Snapchat filters. But inside hospitals, research labs, and now inside smartphones — AR is quietly becoming one of the most powerful tools in emergency medicine.

What is Augmented Reality in medicine?

Augmented Reality (AR) overlays digital information — visuals, instructions, data — onto the real world through a camera. Unlike Virtual Reality, which creates an entirely artificial environment, AR enhances what you can already see. In medicine, this means overlaying surgical guidance onto a patient, or in our case — overlaying CPR hand placement guidance directly onto a person's chest.

The problem AR solves in cardiac emergencies

The biggest barrier to effective CPR is not willingness — it's uncertainty. People want to help. They just don't know where exactly to push, how hard to push, or how fast. Traditional CPR training happens in a controlled classroom, with a mannequin, once a year. In a real emergency — that knowledge evaporates under panic.

AR solves this by bringing the guidance directly to the moment of crisis — overlaid on the actual person, in real time, through the phone already in your hand.

How ReRhythm uses AR

ReRhythm uses Google MediaPipe AI — one of the most advanced real-time body detection models in the world — to detect hand position relative to the person's chest through the phone camera. The system then:

• Overlays a target circle on the correct hand placement position on the chest
• Detects your hand movement in real time and tracks compression depth and rhythm
• Measures compression rate — telling you if you're too fast or too slow
• Provides voice coaching alongside the visual guidance

The result

A bystander with zero medical training — someone who has never performed CPR in their life — can open ReRhythm and perform effective CPR within 30 seconds. The AR guidance eliminates the uncertainty that causes hesitation. The voice coaching eliminates the need to remember anything under panic.

The future of AR in emergency medicine

We are only at the beginning. The next wave of AR emergency medicine includes:

• Smart glasses — AR guidance without needing to hold a phone
• Wearable detection — smartwatches that detect cardiac anomalies before collapse
• Paramedic AR — remote specialists overlaying guidance for paramedics in the field
• Surgical AR — overlaying imaging data directly onto the patient during surgery

ReRhythm is building that future. One heartbeat at a time.