By Anya Sostek
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WASHINGTON — About 23,000 kids and teens experience a cardiac arrest every year in the U.S. If that cardiac arrest takes place in a school with an automated external defibrillator, or AED, on-site, those kids have a 70% chance of survival — more than seven times the overall survival rate.
A new federal bill called the HEARTS Act will establish a grant program to make it easier for schools to obtain AEDs and conduct training on AEDs and in CPR. It would also provide assistance for schools to develop cardiac response emergency plans.
“If a kid goes down, how is the school prepared to manage that, because literally every second matters,” said Leeanna McKibben, board chair for the American Heart Association Southwestern Pennsylvania Region. “Every minute a kid goes without CPR, survival chances drop 10%"
The HEARTS Act passed the U.S. House in September and the U.S. Senate earlier this month; President Joe Biden signed it on Monday. The bill made it through Congress with the support of the American Heart Association, as well as the NFL and leading medical groups. McKees Rocks native Damar Hamlin, who survived a cardiac arrest on the football field in Cincinnati nearly two years ago thanks to CPR and an AED, joined Sen. Chuck Schumer, D- NY, in Buffalo earlier in December to announce the bill was headed to the Senate floor.
“From schools to ball fields, this bill will help to protect kids, and I’m grateful to all the lawmakers and partners who rallied behind it,” said Hamlin in a statement. “This bill will create lasting change, and I’m proud and humbled to have played a part in supporting it.”
About 40% of cardiac arrests in school-age children occur during athletic competitions or practices.
While medical advocates are pleased with the progress of passing the HEARTS Act on the federal level, they are hoping for reforms at the state level as well. The Smart Heart Sports Coalition, a group started by the NFL following Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, advocates for three policies at the state level: AEDs at or within minutes of high school athletic venues, an updated and active athletic Emergency Action Plan specific to each athletic venue, and education in CPR, including AED use, for coaches and other key personnel.
Pennsylvania is one of only five states to have adopted zero of the three policies.
The federal HEARTS Act would create a grant program to distribute funds to schools to create training programs for students, staff and sports volunteers. The funds could also be used for the purchase of AEDs, as well as for components needed to maintain AEDs, such as batteries and AED pads.
As assistant chief for the city of Pittsburgh EMS, Mark Pinchalk hears from organizations that wish they could purchase AEDs but don’t have the funds. And even if they have the funds for an initial purchase, they don’t always budget for maintenance.
“You don’t want to get into a situation where someone grabs an AED and the battery is dead,” he said. “If you have an AED in one place for a few years, at some point that battery will start to go — and they aren’t cheap.”
While the materials themselves are important, the training and planning portion is also essential, said Vince Mosesso, a professor of emergency medicine at Pitt and director of prehospital care for UPMC.
In Pittsburgh, when Mosesso works with sports teams such as the Steelers, there is a designated day every year with a practice session to review their coordinated plan of response for cardiac arrest. “We make sure everyone knows where the AED is, how to access it, and make sure people are trained on how to use it,” he said.
He’s hopeful that the training materials and protocols developed as part of the HEARTS Act could put best practices in place nationwide.
“There are a lot of efforts in place in various piecemeal ways around this subject,” he said. “This is something that could spearhead it to have a more coordinated approach.”
the field. I always wanted to, in my life, leave a legacy on the field, but to have a legacy and have meaning and purpose off the field.”
Additional resources for cardiac arrest treatment in schools benefit not just students, but staff members and visitors as well. In the Penn Trafford School District ,a pregnant teacher who went into cardiac arrest was resuscitated in 2022 by a school nurse using CPR and an AED.
Recent research has shown that even bystanders who aren’t trained in CPR can make a difference. “There are a lot of historical notions that CPR is a little bit scary, that you have to know compressions and breathing ratios,” said McKibben, a former cardiac clinical care nurse who is now chief of staff and vice chancellor for administration for health sciences at Pitt. “One of the amazing things that has happened over the last handful of years is the effectiveness of hands-only CPR. The effectiveness of those compressions can make all the difference until paramedics are able to arrive and take over.”
Local EMS agencies are also hoping to build on increased awareness of bystander capabilities. “We are encouraging folks to have bleeding control training as well,” said Chris Dell, chief at McCandless-Franklin Park Ambulance Authority. “We try to encourage folks to keep their bleeding control kit in with their AED. Anything that can make the community safer and healthier, we certainly support that.”
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