DEFIBRILLATORS LAW SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

East County News Service

October 10, 2015 (Sacramento) - Senate Bill 287, the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Safety Act, has been signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.  The bill was authored by State Senator Ben Hueso, a Democrat representing San Diego and southern portions of East County.

The new law will require that buildings constructed after January 2017 with occupancy of 200 or more, must install an Automated External Defibrillator or AED onsite.

AEDs can diagnose life threatening cardiac arrest and treat a heart attack, restoring the heart’s normal rhythm.

Current law requires AEDs only in fitness centers or gyms. The new law will dramatically expand availability of AEDs, increasing survival rates after heart attacks across California, Senator Hueso says.

Senator Hueso adds, “Timing matters. For every minute following sudden cardiac arrest without defibrillation from an AED, an individual’s chance of survival decreases by 10 percent. The immediate use of an AED can drastically increase the survival rate by 70 percent.”

An estimated 350,000 people in the United States  suffer sudden cardiac arrest each year. Of those, over 52,000 die from sudden cardiac arrest at the workplace, public parks, commercial buildings, streets, highways or transit centers.

According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, the number of people who die from sudden cardiac arrest is equivalent to the number of people who die from Alzheimers’ disease, assault with firearms, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, HIV, house fires, motor vehicle accidents, prostate cancer and suicides combined.

SB 287 was inspired by a similar measure passed by San Diego’s City Council back in 2008.