Andrew Powell
The House has unanimously passed a measure that would require all public school campuses to have at least one operational automated external defibrillator (AED).
Hialeah Republican Rep. Alex Rizo and Clermont Republican Rep. Taylor Yarkosky presented the bill (HB 1607). Yarkosky detailed the statistics on cardiac arrests in schools, and how low the survival rate becomes if an AED is not available.
“Sudden cardiac arrest is the No. 1 killer on school campuses,” Yarkosky said. “It equates to about four of our Florida youth dying every day from sudden cardiac arrests, or around 1,400 students in Florida.”
Yarkosky explained that the current survival rate of a sudden cardiac arrest is 9%, but it could be as high as 90% if an AED is deployed within three minutes. He said cardiac arrest is also the leading cause of death for student athletes.
“The biggest ticking time bomb that we have is that one in every 300 of our youth in Florida, which is about 15,000 to 16,000 kids if you do the math, has an underlying heart condition that they don’t know yet that will perhaps lead to one of these events,” Yarkosky said.
Yarkosky explained that the legislation does four things: puts AEDs in every school; requires CPR and AED training for school personnel; creates a Plan for Urgent Life Saving Emergencies (PULSE) plan that will be deployed and taught in schools; and allows the State Board of Education to adopt and administer rules.
One amendment was adopted that would make it possible for the Florida Department of Education to implement a 10-day rule for all school site personnel to have AED training as part of their usual start of school emergency procedures.
In closing, Rizo explained the impact of the delay in passing this legislation.
“Over 4,500 of school-age children, that in the last three years we’ve been working on this bill, have died from sudden cardiac arrest,” Rizo said.
“Some in schools, some at home. With the passing of this bill, we can ensure that at least in schools all children will have a fighting chance. We will give them that with the passing of this bill.”
The Senate temporarily postponed an identical measure (SB 430) Wednesday that was sponsored by Tallahassee Republican Sen. Corey Simon.
