New Michigan law requires CPR training for high schoolers

A new state law in Michigan is requiring high schools to provide CPR training to students, a move the state hopes will help decrease the number of cardiac arrests.

The law, signed Dec. 28, 2016, says that Michigan high schoolers will learn how to administer CPR and use an automated external defibrillator (AED), according to the American Heart Association, which provides the guidelines the CPR technique will be based on. The law will go into effect at the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year, and it’s estimated that it will result in about 100,000 more CPR-trained Michiganians every year.

“We’re hoping this will help increase survival rates across all Michigan communities and beyond,” said pediatric cardiologist Monica Martin Goble, MD, an associate professor at the University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center. “As four out of five cardiac arrests happen at home, this has the potential to increase survival rates across our communities.”

The law was advocated for and supported by Michigan families who had lost loved ones to cardiac arrest. In some instances, death could have been prevented by CPR.

Through the new law, students will learn how to pump the chest to circulate blood and will become familiar with AED’s.

Michigan is now one of 35 states and Washington D.C. that require high school students be given CPR training. In total, more than 2.1 million high school students each year will have CPR training.