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THE CARDIAC ARREST SURVIVAL ACT: PART ONE

© Kathleen Newton

Instead of trying to explain the entire contents of the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act of 1999, here is the first half of the complete text of this important bill, which was passed into law by the United States Senate in November 2000:

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES August 4, 1999 Mr. GORTON introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for recommendations of the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the placement of automatic external defibrillators in Federal buildings in order to improve survival rates of individuals who experience cardiac arrest in such buildings, and to establish protections from civil liability arising from the emergency use of the devices. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the 'Cardiac Arrest Survival Act of 1999'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The Congress finds as follows:

(1) Each year more than 250,000 adults suffer cardiac arrest, usually away from a hospital. More than 95 percent of them will die, in many cases because cardiopulmonary resuscitation ('CPR'), defibrillation, and advanced life support are provided too late to reverse the cardiac arrest. These cardiac arrests occur primarily from occult underlying heart disease and from drowning, allergic or sensitivity reactions, or electrical shocks.

(2) Every minute that passes before returning the heart to a normal rhythm after a cardiac arrest causes the chance of survival to fall by 10 percent.

(3) In communities where strong public access to defibrillation programs have been implemented, survival from cardiac arrest has improved by as much as 20 percent.

(4) Survival from cardiac arrest requires successful early implementation of a chain of events, known as the chain of survival, which must be initiated as soon as the person sustains a cardiac arrest and must continue until the person arrives at the hospital.

(5) The chain of survival is the medical standard of care for treatment of cardiac arrest.

(6) A successful chain of survival requires the first person on the scene to take rapid and simple initial steps to care for the patient and to assure that the patient promptly enters the emergency medical services system. These steps include--

(A) recognizing an emergency and activating the emergency medical services system;

(B) beginning CPR; and

(C) using an automated external defibrillator (`AED') if one is available at the scene.

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