Advocates say training can help save lives
Maryland students can currently decide if they want to learn CPR, but if a new bill becomes law, training will no longer be optional.
Life has not been the same at Perry Hall High School for Breanna Sudano. Two and a half years ago, she collapsed during a field hockey match and was kept alive by someone who knew how to perform CPR.
"It means a lot because if more people know CPR, more lives could be saved," Sudano said.
Now, she's making the rounds in Annapolis hoping to convince lawmakers to support the legislation. It would require schools to teach CPR and train students on how to use an external defibrillator. It would start for ninth-graders in the 2015-16 school year.
Baltimore Sen. Catherine Pugh said there are plenty of reasons for students to learn CPR.
"Whether it's in school, on the playground, in the neighborhood or in the community, this could be anybody, but everybody needs to know how to do this," Pugh said.
A Virginia couple helped get a similar bill passed in their home state following a personal tragedy.
"Our daughter collapsed one day at school, and as a result of that collapse, she died in July of 2013 from an anoxic brain injury," said mom Jennifer Griffin.
"We were able to put together legislation that successfully passed this past year," father Joel Griffin said.
That is what the Sudano family is counting on.
"We learn it in our health curriculum. I also take paramedic biology, which we have a curriculum in that as well," Breanna Sudano said.
"Since this has happened, we have been recertified in CPR. To us, CPR is a gift of life, and a beautiful gift of life you can give is to save a life," mother Rebecca Sudano said.
The American Heart Association said it stands ready to help with training.
"No one plans to have a cardiac arrest. It happens suddenly. It can happen to any one of us," said Michaeline Fedder with the American Heart Association.
The CPR bill comes up for its first hearing in the middle of next week.
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