Washington, DC – Senator Susan Collins is leading efforts in the Senate
to help save people who are suffering from a heart attack, by pushing to
increase funding for automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in schools and
rural communities. AEDs are first aid devices that can shock a heart back
into normal rhythm and restore life to a cardiac arrest victim. According to
the American Heart Association, making AEDs standard equipment in first
responder vehicles and in more public places could save more than 50,000 lives
a year.
“Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country,” said
Senator Collins. “Many of these deaths could be prevented if automatic
external defibrillators were more accessible.”
Senator Collins is urging the Administration to provide funding in the
President’s 2008 budget request for the Rural Access to Emergency Devices
(Rural AED) Act and the Automatic Defibrillation in Adam’s Memory (ADAM) Act.
The Rural AED Act will help rural communities to obtain defibrillators and the
ADAM Act will aid schools in setting up public access defibrillation programs.
Senator Collins wrote a letter to the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget urging support for these critical AED programs.
“The Rural Access to Emergency Devices Act, which has been endorsed by
both the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross, recognizes
that we cannot and should not leave rural communities behind in the fight to
improve cardiac arrest survival rates,” wrote Senator Collins in her letter to
Director Rob Portman.
Since its passage, the Rural AED Act has provided rural first responders
with more than $40 million through a Health Resources and Services
Administration competitive grant program. In the first year of the program,
6,440 AEDs were purchased and 38,800 people were trained to use the lifesaving
devices.
Funding for the ADAM Act will provide a response to the growing number of
schools that want to set up a public access defibrillation program. It will
establish a clearinghouse to provide schools with the appropriate training,
technical advice, and guidance needed to improve access to defibrillators and
to prevent cardiac arrest-related deaths among students, teachers, and other
individuals. The ADAM Act was inspired by the death of a 17-year-old high
school student in Wisconsin who collapsed and died during a basketball game.
Senator Collins and Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin originally introduced
the ADAM Act, which was signed into law in July 2003.