A documentarian shooting a film about the impact of Haitian poverty filmed more than he was expecting when a calamitous earthquake hit Port-au-Prince nine days ago, crushing him under rubble. His life was ultimately saved not just by rescue workers or foreign aid… but by his iPhone.
The filmmaker, Dan Wooley, first used his DSLR camera to illuminate the wreckage of the building he was in. Finding a relatively safe elevator shaft, Woolley then used the Pocket First Aid and CPR app to make a bandage for his leg and to staunch the bleeding from a head wound, which proved so serious he even used the iPhone’s built-in alarm clock to prevent himself from going to sleep.
An amazing story, but perhaps everything’s best summarized by Wooley’s own five star review of Pocket First Aid and CPR, posted on its iTunes App Store page: “Consulted this app, while trapped under Hotel Montana in Haiti earthquake, to treat excessive bleeding and shock. Helped me stay alive till I was rescued 64 hours later.” Now that’s the kind of review that sells an app.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
