A potential, lifesaving change in Mississippi education policy was championed by the Mississippi State Senate today with the unanimous passage of House Bill 432. The bill adds CPR education to high school physical education classes. The Mississippi House of Representatives previously passed the bill unanimously.
The specifics of HB 432 are:
- Adds CPR as an instructional component to the already required physical education class for high school students
- Must be an American Heart Association or American Red Cross approved program
- A teacher does not have to be a certified CPR trainer to administer a NON certification program such as Hands-Only CPR, but courses resulting in CPR certification MUST be taught by an authorized CPR/AED instructor
- There must be a psychomotor skills component (use hands-on practice to support the cognitive learning)
An amendment was added to the bill today that set the provisions in the bill as a minimum requirement and if a school decides they want to teach full certification, then they can.
The bill with the amendment will return now to the Mississippi House of Representatives for final passage.
The new law will add thousands of CPR-trained young adults to the community, year after year.
Nearly 424,000 people have sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital every year, and only 10.4 percent survive, most likely because they don’t receive timely CPR. Given right away, CPR doubles or triples survival rates.
Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, at any time. It is most often caused by a heart attack, but it can also be caused by trauma, an overdose, or drowning. In sudden cardiac arrest, the heart stops beating; blood stops circulating; oxygen stops flowing to the brain; and the victim stops breathing. Studies have shown that students are capable of learning and effectively performing CPR.
Recently, the Metro Jackson Heart Association recognized Madison native, Chloe Sumrall, who performed lifesaving CPR on a patron in a local restaurant when she was a high school senior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. The patron suffered from sudden cardiac death, a condition that in Mississippi has less than a 2% chance of survival. Because of Chloe’s immediate action, the victim, a husband and father, is alive today.
The American Heart Association’s goal is to teach lifesaving CPR skills to as many teens and young adults as possible in Mississippi to help keep communities safer. The pending legislation will create the foundation for teaching students CPR before graduation.
SOURCE: WJTV