S.C. legislation looks to change cardiac arrest responses
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - South Carolina bills to promote cardiac emergency responses are being introduced into the General Assembly.
The South Carolina Smart Heart Act and T-R Training law are potential solutions to the lack of statewide cardiac emergency response models, according to the American Heart Association.
The American Heart Association states that of the 356,000 cardiac arrests that occur outside of a hospital each year in the United States, over 23,000 cases are children under the age of 18. Forty percent of those cases relate to sports and 40% of victims get the help they need before emergency responders arrive.
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The proposed bills aim to ensure quicker cardiac response times for victims before medical authorities arrive. Medical authorities could take minutes that a victim would desperately need.
The Smart Heart Act requires schools and organizations that sponsor athletics to provide a cardiac emergency response plan. The plan calls for automated external defibrillators on campuses and near athletic venues for life-threatening athletic-related emergencies. The act will require high school sports coaches to obtain and maintain training for R, automatic external defibrillator use and first aid.
The T-R training law would require all emergency operators that dispatch emergency personnel to be trained in giving out-of-hospital, compression-only R instructions to callers.
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