Saving Lives with Text Messages

Available for over a year

What do you do in a medical emergency when the equivalent of 999 or 911 simply doesn’t exist? After spending time in countries that lack public ambulance services, US paramedic Jason Friesen realised the problem wasn’t a lack of sophisticated ambulances, or the hi-tech medical equipment inside them, but the communication system necessary to get an injured person from A to B in time to save their life. In the Dominican Republic there are no public ambulances but now, in two rural areas, first responders respond to a medical emergency as fast as any ambulance service in the developed world. And all it takes is one smartphone, a handful of willing volunteers, and an Uber-like text system that crowdsources help when disaster strikes. And Dougal Shaw meets the man who is pioneering a way to use recycled plastic to make stronger, longer lasting roads. Presenter: Sahar Zand Reporters: Gemma Newby, Dougal Shaw. Image: First responders in the back of an ambulance / Credit: BBC