The most important thing to do if you witness a cardiac arrest at home is not to call on your smart home computer but rather to dial 999 or 112 immediately.

This is the message from Head of Resus at the Irish Heart Foundation Brigid Sinnott, in response to social media posts currently doing the rounds which state that smart home devices can help you to do CPR in an emergency.

In the posts people are advised that in an emergency such as a cardiac arrest, to tell their smart home device to “activate emergency CPR” and this will trigger it to commence CPR instructions. However, this is not the best first action to take in the event of a cardiac arrest and should not be used in any way as an alternative to medical advice.

Commenting Brigid said, “ Rather than depending on a smart home device to save a life, the best and only thing to do in an emergency is to call the emergency services and they will talk you through how to perform CPR. Better still why not learn how to do CPR yourself so that when you do make the call to the ambulance service you know what to do next.”

There may come a time when your smart home device can recognise that someone is suffering a cardiac arrest and call the emergency services as reported by new research last year.

However, that technology is still very new and needs further testing so, for now, the best thing you can do when you witness someone having a cardiac arrest is to dial 999 or 112 immediately.

Approximately 5,000 lives are lost every year in Ireland to sudden cardiac arrest. That is about 13 deaths every day.

Around 70 per cent of cardiac arrests happen at home in front of a loved one. If someone nearby knows CPR and can start performing compressions quickly, they can double or even triple a person’s chances of survival.

In both a cardiac arrest and a heart attack the ambulance service needs to be called immediately on either 112 or 999.

CPR is easy to learn and by completing a CPR course at any stage in your life, you are 10 times more likely to respond and assist in an emergency.

The Irish Heart Foundation provides free CPR training through its Hands for Life: Community CPR Training Programme, supported by Abbott and ESB Networks.

For more information or to book a course and learn how to save a life please see here.