SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - A bill requiring South Dakota students to take a cardiopulmonary resuscitation class, as a requirement to graduate from high school, will have it's last hurdle in the House.
Lobbyist for the American Heart Association of South Dakota, Megan Meyers, says every day in the United States there are about a thousand people who suffer cardiac arrest away from a hospital.
Meyers, speaking before the House Education Committee today, says what happens minutes after that can mean the difference between life and death. She says of those cardiac arrests, witnessed by another person, less than half receive CPR prior to first responders arriving. She says that's often because the witness doesn't know what to do and that leads to a survival rate of just 11%.
Meyers says to survive a cardiac arrest, CPR must be started right away to keep blood pumping to the brain, lungs and other organs. She says in South Dakota it takes an average of ten minutes before first responders arrive after someone calls 911.
In Sioux Falls and Rapid City first responders are close by, but in rural areas in South Dakota it can take much longer for an ambulance to arrive.
Meyers says the state's schools provide an ideal opportunity to teach young people the basic compressions-only CPR. She says the training can be done in as little as thirty minutes and can easily be incorporated into the school day.
No one spoke against the measure which passed the committee unanimously.