Congress Can Save Lives 📧
Last year, thanks to the work of tens of thousands of advocates just like you, the HEARTS Act became the law of the land. This bipartisan law creates a new grant program to equip schools across the country to respond to a cardiac emergency. It will provide resources for schools to purchase and maintain an AED (automated external defibrillator), train staff and volunteers on CPR and make sure they have a plan for what to do in a cardiac emergency.
Creation of this bipartisan program was a critical first step. Now, Congress needs to fund this lifesaving program.
More than 350,000 people suffer a cardiac arrest each year outside of a hospital, and more than 23,000 of them are children. Only 10% of people survive a cardiac arrest due to lack of timely intervention, but a person’s chance of survival can double or even triple if someone nearby calls 911, starts CPR and uses an AED right away. In schools with an AED present, the chances of a child surviving a cardiac arrest increase to 70%, seven times the overall survival rate for children!