When Kylee Shea collapsed to the floor and stopped breathing in a Frisco middle school hallway in September of 2011, teachers rushed into action. The two teachers who revived Shea, who was 12 at the time and had no prior history of heart trouble, were trained in CPR and the use of the school's automatic external defibrillator (AED).
Shea's close call with deathinspired a Frisco-based program to teach thousands of kids what to do if someone's heart stops.
Now, two Texas lawmakers, Rep. John Zerwas and Sen. Juan Hinojosa, have proposed a bill, HB 897/SB 261 that would require students to take a 30-minute CPR class to graduate from high school. The American Heart Association, which favors the bill, highlights potential benefits of such training:
- Several studies have demonstrated that trainees, including schoolchildren, can achieve acceptable levels of skills proficiency in adult CPR in 30 minutes or less.
- An out of hospital cardiac arrest victim’s chances of survival double or triple if a bystander is trained in CPR. Surviving sudden cardiac arrest depends on a public trained in CPR and the availability of an automated external defibrillator (AED).
- Schools present an opportunity to teach young people how to respond to sudden cardiac arrest and make it a part of regular behavior.
Let us know what you think, should Texas high school students be required to learn CPR before graduation? @KERAnews.
