From the office of Sen. Nancy Jacobs:
Three renowned doctors will challenge the American Heart Association recommendations on lifesaving AEDs in a legislative hearing Tuesday in Annapolis.
They say AEDs have been discovered locked and inaccessible to public, limiting the chances of saving the life of someone in Sudden Cardiac Arrest. These AED experts say more lives could be saved if training requirements are dropped and training isn’t linked to liability for the facilities housing AEDs. They argue that AEDs are so user-friendly a child can succeed in using one to save a life.
Dr. Myron Weisfeldt, Chief of Dept. of Medicine, Johns Hopkins
Dr. Betsy Hunt, MD, Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins
Dr. Morton Mower, Co-Inventor of first internal defibrillator, Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineer
These doctors are supporting Senate Bill 461 Tuesday, February 28th, in a hearing before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. That bill, sponsored by Senator Nancy Jacobs, will:
*Eliminate liability that exists for registered AED facilities in the state by not linking liability to compliance with a long list of program rules.
*Put language in the Good Samaritan Law specific to AED use and immunity.
*Changes the AED program so that only “one person” is required to oversee the device for proper maintenance, recalls, and updates.
In addition to the physicians, you will also hear testimony froma parent whose teenage son died on a basketball court. She started a foundation to put AEDs in public places. Aman whose life was saved with an AED will also testify in support of the bill.
Locking up an AED is like locking up fire extinguishers. It doesn’t make sense. I have never actually seen an AED that is locked up though so I’m not sure who is doing this stupidity.
At my facility we’ve had people complain that the AED’s are locked up. In reality, the “locks” people see on our devices are alarms that must be reset with a key. The AED’s are still accessible to anyone. Not sure if this is what people see elsewhere…
I totally think people are mistaken the alarm on/off key for cabinets as being locked. They wouldn’t know any better if they were not educated that the cabinet has an alarm feature hence why training is so important! Which brings me to the next issue of eliminating training for the use of an AED!!!!! Yes many AED’s on the market now are so simple to use, a child can use one. However, wouldn’t not knowing how to use one scare people from grabbing it to use in an emergency situation when people are most likely frantic and not thinking clearly to begin with? I am not confident all of the facts are on the table to support this bill.