‘It’s going to save lives’: Gov. Lee to sign bill protecting young athletes in cardiac emergencies
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – On Tuesday, Gov. Bill Lee will publicly sign into law an effort to protect young athletes in cardiac emergencies.
The Smart Heart Act is a measure that requires all Tennessee public and private schools to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) accessible within three minutes of all athletic facilities. The legislation also mandates that all coaches, whether the coach is employed or a volunteer, and school athletic directors go through training in AED, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and first aid. In addition, all 9-12 schools must establish and rehearse an athletics emergency action plan (AEAP).
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“I’m very happy with this piece of legislation I’ve passed,” said Culleoka Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky, the bill’s sponsor. “In five years, I’ve passed over 40 bills in the General Assembly. This one’s going to go down as one I’m most proud of.”
The law follows guidelines of the NFL’s Smart Heart Sports Coalition, which was launched in response to Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest event on the football field in 2023.
Cepicky said the day he was presenting the bill on the house floor, a local athlete went into cardiac arrest, but luckily, just like in Hamlin’s case, because they had a defibrillator nearby, the young man’s life was spared.
“We are mirroring this across the whole state of Tennessee so every high school, every middle school will have their response teams there, ready to go to administer aid to those athletes,” Cepicky said. “It’s going to save lives in Tennessee.”
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, approximately 2,000 people under the age of 25 die from sudden cardiac arrest in the U.S. each year.
Angel Carter is a registered nurse who travels across Middle Tennessee training people on how to use life-saving technology.
“Sometimes I think people are just getting in a room and saying, ‘here’s your AED, here’s what we would do’, and that’s checking the box, but now, it needs to be a very active rehearsal where you actually should throw down a mannequin and get out a stopwatch or a timer on your phone,” Carter said. “You’re putting together so much more than just the CPR and AED components.”
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Carter said when it comes to cardiac events, time is of the essence if you want to save a life.
“The most important minutes after someone collapses from cardiac arrest are those first one to two minutes, and then further on three to five minutes, so we’ve got to get people to understand immediate CPR, and then retrieval of their AED, which won’t happen by accident,” Carter said. “It’s got to be on people’s radar of always being accessible and where everyone knows where it is.”
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The Smart Heart Act takes effect July 1. It will apply to the 2024 – 2025 school year and each school year to follow.
“When you’re able to pass legislation like this, it’s meaningful to people that an athlete that maybe wasn’t going to go home that day is going to go home that day to their parents,” Cepicky said.
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