It takes an average of 10 minutes for a first-responder to arrive to an emergency after dialing 911 in South Dakota, according to the American Heart Association. In rural areas, it can take even longer.
So if a person experiences sudden cardiac arrest, either response time is long enough to have fatal consequences.
South Dakota legislators will try to address part of that issue this week when they consider Senate Bill 140, a proposal to require all South Dakota high school students to take a course in “hands only” cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, prior to graduation. Students would also receive instruction in the use of automated external defibrillators, or AEDS.
State Sen. Larry Tidemann, R-Brookings, and Rep. Jean Hunhoff, R-Yankton, are the lead Senate and House sponsors of the bill, which would contribute more than 10,000 CPR-trained citizens to the state each year if passed. Now, only about half of South Dakota’s high schools teach CPR to their students in some form.
“This would be a required part of the curriculum rather than a recommended part of the curriculum,” said Megan Myers, government relations director for the American Heart Association. “CPR is a skill we think everybody should have.”
Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia currently have laws requiring CPR training in high school, Myers said.
On Monday, a contingent of people will descend on the state Capitol to advocate for the bill and in general to promote measures to prevent and treat heart disease and stroke-related issues. American Heart Association representatives will be joined by people who were saved through CPR, and those who have saved others, in meetings with lawmakers in both chambers.
Last Wednesday, Nicole Neugebauer, a certified EMT and ambulance director in Armour who has been teaching the “hands only” CPR technique in schools since 2013, testified in favor of the measure before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
“In the rural areas of the state, within the first minutes you need a responder,” Neugebaur said before explaining that a person with even basic CPR training can save a life using the compression technique before an EMT arrives and uses an automated external defibrillator or some other method to restart the heart. “If they (students) are exposed to it in high school, they’re going to remember forever.”
The CPR instruction takes about 40 minutes, with students learning compression and the signs and symptoms someone exhibits when they’re experiencing cardiac arrest, Neugebauer said.
She uses inflatable mannequins and instructional DVDs from a kit by the American Heart Association and works with schools to teach the classes whenever convenient in student schedules. If the bill, which passed in committee on Wednesday, is signed into law, a $30,000 grant would be distributed among South Dakota schools to buy the kits or other materials needed to teach the course.
SOURCE: Rapid City Journal