It Could Be Law Profile of a Vermont Bill

Author: Ryan Gamble

The Vermont State Legislature recently passed a bill that authorizes the distribution of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to the state police. AEDs are a new generation of defibrillators that were designed to allow lay persons to deliver defibrillation. They are small, easy-to-use, laptop-sized devices that can analyze the heart rhythms of a person in cardiac arrest to determine if a shock is necessary and, if warranted, deliver a life-saving shock to the heart. Audio and visual prompts guide the user.
In a statement to The Middlebury Campus, Claire Ayer (D - Addison County) said sudden cardiac arrest in adults is frequently caused by ventricular fibrillation, an abnormal, chaotic heart rhythm that prevents the heart from pumping blood. While cardiopulmonary resuscitation is helpful, the most effective treatment for ventricular fibrillation is defibrillation, delivering an electrical shock to the heart with a defibrillator. This device is needed to restore the normal electrical signals necessary for proper heart rate.
The bill was prompted by advances in technology that make these devices relatively easy to use for the average person who has had minimal, if any, training. "Police are often the first officials contacted, so they're normally first on site," Ayer said. So it makes sense to put defibrillators in the hands of the police.
Each year 250,000 people die nationwide of cardiac arrest. It is estimated that one out of every 1,000 dies of cardiac arrest annually. That adds up to about 449 people in Vermont each year. The new law is designed to reduce the number of deaths in the state due to cardiac arrest by supplying the necessary equipment to those who will need it most. The legislation builds on a previous law passed in 2000 that allowed lay people to use AEDs and protected them from liability when using the device to save the life of a cardiac arrest victim.
At that time, former Governor Howard Dean spoke on the issue in a Statehouse address: "There is no doubt that these devices will save lives. Rapid defibrillation is the single most important factor in determining survival from cardiac arrest. Because of the short window for defibrillation, the survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests is only five percent. Hopefully, by increasing access to the devices by lay people, we will become one of the communities who have been able to boost their survival rates to 20 percent."