Your Opinion: Support teaching CPR to students

Dear Editor:

If someone in your family, or a neighbor, or someone in the grocery store collapsed of sudden cardiac arrest, would you know what to do?

Of the 383,000 people that suffer sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year, the vast majority do not receive bystander CPR and less than 11 percent survive.

Effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest, can double or triple a victim's chance of survival.

Currently 24 states, including Missouri, are working to make sure that all students learn CPR before they graduate high school so that our community will be filled with individuals that know how to respond in a cardiac emergency.

HB1337, which will be heard in the Senate Education Committee this week, allows schools flexibility when providing the CPR training.

It can be taught during health class, PE, or anytime throughout the school day. The training can be administered by any teacher or an outside instructor. The teacher administering the training does not have to be a certified trainer and does not require students to achieve CPR certification.

The bill simply allows students to understand and become familiar with the new "Hands Only" CPR instruction.

Contact your state senator and ask them to support HB1337!

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