The power to save a life will soon be in your pocket

What’s been lost in the whole debate over keeping out terrorists is that whatever you do to prevent it, sometime, somewhere something is going to happen.

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And in the UK, four British trauma experts created an app so that if you happen to be there you’ll know what to do.

It’s called CitizenAID. It’s designed to be used even where there’s no Internet service.

The principle behind it is pretty simple.

Terrorist attacks, by their nature, come without warning and can happen anywhere. When they do happen the police are going to be preoccupied with stopping the bad guys, which means someone has to come to the aid of the victims. And that someone may be you.

CBS’s Rylee Carlson witnessed a demonstration in Birmingham, England and spoke with one of the people behind the app.

“We have to empower the public with skills and knowledge to be able to act in the first few minutes,” Dr. Tim Hodgetts explained. “It is at the front of people’s mind that it can happen, even though it is a rare event.”

So Dr. Hodgetts and his fellow trauma experts developed CitizenAID. The app tells you exactly what do to if you witness a knife attack, a mass shooting, or a bombing. And what you do is, you run, you hide, you call the police, and then — if you can — you help.

Step by step the app shows the user what they need in order to save someone’s life, Carlson reports.

The app is coming to the U.S. next, and because most of us aren’t medics we hope we won’t have to use it, but if we do, it’ll be right there in your pocket.

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