First Aid CPR AED | CPR in school laws take effect in eight new states this year

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First Aid CPR AED CPR in school laws take
effect in eight new states this year
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After Noah Weeda collapsed during soccer drills
in April 2015 at his Grand Rapids, Mich., high
school, best friend Tyler Menhart called 911 and
used CPR skills he learned as a Boy Scout. In
South Carolina, 18-year-old high school football
player Ronald Rouse died in 2012 after collapsing
twice during a home game. The cause of death was
a heart condition. Both experiences led to
efforts to improve lifesaving education in both
states. In fact, Michigan and South Carolina are
among eight new states that have adopted high
school curriculum or passed laws requiring CPR
training to graduate starting in the 2017-2018
school year. The other six states are Missouri,
Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota and
Wisconsin.
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CPR a technique that includes chest
compressions with or without rescue breaths
should be performed when someones heart stops,
known as cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest can be
caused by a malfunction of the hearts electrical
system, a heart attack, drug overdose, drowning
or other causes. The lack of oxygenated blood can
cause brain damage or death in 10 minutes or
less. CPR can keep blood flowing to the brain and
other organs, doubling or tripling a persons
chance of survival. Yet, less than half of the
more than 350,000 Americans who experience
cardiac arrests outside a hospital each year
receive bystander CPR before medical help
arrives. Only about one in 10 survives.
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Advocates in states with new CPR in school laws
hope to see higher survival rates. The more
people who learn CPR, the better the chances are
that a bystander will be ready, willing and able
to act, said Lt. Bryan Wonn, a professional
standards investigator and CPR instructor for the
Columbus, Ohio, Division of Fire. By starting in
school, you get access to a lot of people. In
some states such as Ohio, the new law requires
students to receive training in CPR and use of an
automated external defibrillator, or AED, a
portable device that can shock the heart back to
a normal rhythm. Overall, 37 states plus
Washington, D.C., have laws requiring hands-on
CPR education before high school graduation. Laws
also have been passed in California, Maine and
Montana, but they fall short of criteria set by
the American Heart Association.
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After existing legislation takes effect, 2.2
million public school students nationwide will be
trained each year in CPR. The impact can have a
much further reach when the child goes home and
helps protect the community outside of school,
said Vinay Nadkarni, M.D., associate director of
the Center for Resuscitation Science at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Seventy percent of out-of-hospital cardiac
arrests happen at home. Earlier this year, a
woman holding a toddler rushed into a Tennessee
fast-food joint where Kaela Eads, 18, was
working. Her son wasnt breathing, so Kaela began
CPR, which she had learned in high school under
the states 2012 law.
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Similar lifesaving action by teenagers sparked
legislation in some states with new CPR in school
laws. In Michigan, students Noah and Tyler
testified in support of the state bill. At the
beginning, people were hesitant about putting a
mandate on schools, said Jason Trojan, an
emergency medical technician for Emergent Health
Partners in Ann Arbor, Mich. Stories of
real-life incidents helped. It remains to be
seen how schools will react to the new law, but
he noted that some schools allowed EMTs to offer
CPR training in certain classes before the
mandate. Among the states that dont require CPR
training in school, some simply recommend
training and several have introduced bills that
failed.
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Advocates would like to see all states pass CPR
in school laws. In Pennsylvania, where
legislation is pending to require CPR training in
schools, some of the pushback to legislation has
been the lack of funding, said Nadkarni, who
helped develop CPR courses for AHA. Other
impediments include concerns that achieving 100
percent compliance and the tracking of training
can be burdensome.