Personal injury attorney creates medical app to help families in medical crisis
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A new app to help families in a medical crisis has been launched by a personal injury attorney.
The app, Med Legal Safe Keep , was created by Edward Reyes after his father had a medical emergency. It is patient-driven, which means it is up to the user to who has access to their information.
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"He was involved in an accident, he fell down, lost his memory, couldn't talk, couldn't walk," Reyes said. "He was in a coma for a long time."
Reyes's father went into cardiac arrest in October 2023.
He spent hours next to his father's side in the hospital while he was being treated. The attorney said he overheard nurses asking questions and people not having the answers.
"They're like, 'This is a big problem.' We spend so many hours and hours and hours trying to find out information. In the meantime, the patient is in the bed, and they can't get care."
After experiencing his father's emergency, Reyes created Med Legal Safe Keep, an app that combines a patient's medical, legal, and financial paperwork.
"Somebody can click, click, click and add all their medical and the legal stuff. You can take pictures and add documentation as well," Reyes said.
All you have to do is download it from the app store, create an account, upload your documents, and print out the QR code it gives you.
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The most important thing is to slip the QR code in your wallet, so EMS or hospital staff can pull up your information. This code will be used if you, or a loved one, are ever in a crisis.
"They can scan the QR code, it takes a geolocation of the EMS provider, it sends a text message to the emergency contacts that this person scanned the code, and it gives medical access to that EMS person, so they know what's wrong with you in the case of an emergency," Reyes said. "It shares your location for four hours with your emergency contacts."
You can also access Med Legal Safe Keep on your computer through an online portal.
Reyes said if his dad never went into cardiac arrest, he never would have spent more than a year creating this app.
"I want this to be an app that you use every single day to make your life better on a regular basis, and God forbid, you have an emergency."
Both Reyes' parents live with him, and he said they would always find his father grilling or being active. Today, life has changed for all of them.
"His health has declined quite a bit; he has a 20/25% oxygen. He still likes to go out and do things whenever he can. He does get tired. I'll still take that version of my dad then the version that can't talk, that's in a coma, doesn't remember his name, doesn't know who we are," he said.
The Med Legal Safe Keep app launched in January and is available in both English and Spanish. It is also end-to-end encrypted, so your information is secure. In the next few months, many more features will be added, like being able to track treatments, menstrual cycles, and more.
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