Funding and training choices in Kansas can treat cardiac arrest, help build a nation of lifesavers

As a pediatric cardiologist and pediatric nurse specializing in electrophysiology, we witness life and death situations every day. Many of those involve the 350,000 children each year who experience cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, only 1 in 10 survive until they get to the hospital.

This is a number that needs to change!

We see it every day. Every second matters in an emergency, and training students to bring lifesaving skills into the world means countless lives saved. It means equipping the heroes on the ground before first responders arrive on scene. They are invaluable skills.

 The American Heart Association is working to turn a nation of bystanders into a nation of lifesavers by ensuring all students and educators are trained in CPR. With your support, we can equip more people with this life-saving skill and help save more lives.

Knowing how to respond when someone goes into cardiac arrest can mean the difference between life and death. Having someone act immediately — call 911, perform CPR and use an AED (automated external defibrillator) when available — can double or even triple the chance of survival and improves long-term prognosis.

Currently, CPR is performed on less than half of the people who are experiencing cardiac arrest in public before medical help arrives. It’s performed even less frequently when the patient is a woman, a Black adult, or a member of another historically under-represented racial or ethnic group. Data also shows that communities with lower socioeconomic status and rural communities experience worse outcomes.

Performing hands-only CPR while waiting for first responders to arrive is as effective in the first few minutes as conventional CPR for cardiac arrest. A lay responder who performs CPR and uses an AED can significantly improve survival, especially if they are administered within the first three minutes.

About 70% of cardiac arrests that occur outside of the hospital happen at home, so it is likely students could be prepared to save the life of a loved one.

Data shows that communities with lower income and education levels, or higher percentages of people of color, have lower survival rates from cardiac arrest outside of a hospital and higher disease burden.

This training can be especially important in rural areas where emergency response times can be longer. Rural communities also experience worse outcomes. Identifying high-risk communities and those most likely to benefit from additional training and resources is important.

More than 40 states have passed laws requiring students to learn CPR before graduating high school. To help schools implement this life-saving training, it is essential to secure public funding. Teaching students CPR puts thousands of qualified lifesavers in our community, year after year. However, not every school has access to the needed funding to implement these lifesaving programs, and even fewer have access to AEDs.  Public funding is necessary to guarantee every student in every school can respond to a cardiac emergency and every school in every county in Kansas has access to an AED.

We never want to see any of you, or your children, under our care due to cardiac arrest. If more people in our community are trained in CPR, the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest increase dramatically.

You don’t have to be trained as a first responder to save a life! Schools are the hub of every community. Ensuring every school has an accessible AED creates a safer environment for all.

With more than 500,000 students enrolled in public schools in Kansas, CPR training as a graduation requirement can put hundreds of thousands of lifesavers in our communities year after year.

By teaching CPR in our schools, our students can play a crucial role in saving lives. With public funding for these vital programs, we can create a nation of lifesavers and prevent death from cardiac arrest. Having students trained in CPR before graduation is more important now than ever.

Lindsey Malloy-Walton is a pediatric electrophysiologist. Kaitlyn Bennett is a pediatric cardiac nurse at Children’s Mercy and lives in Kansas City. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.