How to save a life: Revived bill would prepare schools for cardiac emergencies

Most people who go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die. And of the more than 350,000 instances each year in the U.S., about 23,000 sudden cardiac arrest victims are children.

State Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth, is pushing a new bill to ensure schools are prepared when the unexpected happens. Should it pass, it would require Minnesota school districts and charters to develop a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, or a CERP, and implement it by the 2026-27 school year.

An Education Policy Committee hearing on Monday focused on sporting and athletic events, where 40 percent of cardiac cases happen. According to the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes.

In 2009, Kim and Norm Okerstrom’s son Teddy, then age 16, collapsed on the field during Wayzata's summer football conditioning. Kim Okerstrom testified that her son went six minutes without a pulse. But his coach jumped into action immediately, beginning CPR, and directing another adult to get an automated external defibrillators, or AED, and call 911.

Teddy survived, finished high school and college and is now a middle school teacher in Denver, pursuing a master’s degree. His story, though, is the minority; only 10 percent of people survive cardiac arrest outside of a hospital and just 40 percent get immediate help before emergency medical services can arrive. Timely CPR can triple that survival rate; an AED can boost survival up to 90 percent when used within three minutes.

Westlin told MPR News on Tuesday that while a large chunk of sudden cardiac arrest emergencies happen at athletic events, the majority happen elsewhere on school campuses.

“Miss Minnesota [2024] was there [Monday], Emily Ray Schumacher, and she talked about speaking recently with a student in Portland who had been sitting in algebra class and had a sudden cardiac arrest, and they acted immediately, and she survived, and she's with us today because they had a plan in place,” Westlin said.

Westlin has tried to pass such a bill previously. While it had bipartisan support, the Legislature instead adopted a softer requirement for the Minnesota Department of Education — requiring the department to develop a CERP that districts could adopt, should they choose to. So, Westlin has continued to work with the American Heart Association and other groups to require every district to have its own plan for sudden cardiac arrest incidents.

The bill proposes schools create a written plan including a team of teachers, trainers, coaches or other personnel who get CPR and AED training within 30 days of the school year’s start; an AED within a 1-3-minute walk of athletic venues; all coaches and athletic faculty must be CPR and defibrillator-trained; and the Minnesota State High School League supervision at events.

The latter clause got pushback from MSHSL attorney Roger Aronson, who called the language unfeasible and asked lawmakers to be more flexible.

The bill asks for a $2 million appropriation. Under current requirements, only head coaches need that training, Westlin said, but pointed out that CPR and AED training are often free from organizations like the American Red Cross. The biggest-ticket item would likely be more AEDs.

“Many schools do have AEDs currently, there were conversations [Monday] in committee about portable AEDs that, you know, athletic teams could take with them on the road if they need to, you know, travel,” Westlin said. “So I think really the focus is on trying to increase survival when these events happen and hopefully we'll get this over the finish line.”

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