New Massachusetts Law Requires AEDs in Schools

AED-school

January 30, 2017—Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in schools affects 7,000 students annually, as well as staff and visitors alike.1 Access to an automated external defibrillator (AED) has been proven to increase the survival rate of a cardiac arrest victim five-fold.2

Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker recently signed into law Bill S.2449, requiring that Massachusetts schools provide an AED on the premises and at any school-sponsored athletic event, by July 1, 2018.3 Additionally, each school shall be required to have a staff member who is certified to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and use an AED in accordance with standards established by the American Heart Association (AHA).

Educating staff and students about SCA, learning high-performance CPR, and having AEDs readily available are all essential to improving school safety. In advance of the new law going into effect, ZOLL® will be donating an AED Plus® monthly to a qualified Massachusetts school until July 2018. The ZOLL AED Plus, designed and manufactured in Massachusetts, is the only AED with fully integrated Real CPR Help® to provide real-time CPR feedback that is consistent with the AHA's 2015 Guidelines.

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1Atkins DL, et al. Circulation. 2015;132(suppl 2): S519–S525.
2Weisfeldt ML, et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2010;55(16):1713–20.
3“An act requiring automated external defibrillators in schools.” General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, malegislature.gov/Bills/189/S2449. Accessed 12 Jan. 2017.

MCN WP 1702 0044