[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 21, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H8388-H8389]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WHY WE NEED TO MAKE AED'S MORE AVAILABLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.

[[Page H8389]]

  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, today I want to share with my colleagues 
why I believe passage of the cardiac arrest survival act is so 
important to this country.
  If this bill becomes law, it would have the potential of saving 
thousands and thousands of lives each year. Passage of this act would 
go a long way towards making the goal of saving the lives of people who 
suffer sudden cardiac arrest possible. It would ensure that what the 
American Heart Association refers to as a ``cardiac chain of survival'' 
could go into effect.
  While defibrillation, which is number three on the list, is the most 
effective mechanism to revive a heart that has stopped, it is also the 
least accessed tool we have available to treat victims suffering from 
heart failure.
  Let me tell my colleagues about an experience about a Navy commander, 
John Hearing's experience. He is a cardiac arrest survivor. On October 
9, 1997, stationed in Fallon, Nevada, Navy Commander John Hearing was 
swimming as part of a semi-annual physical readiness test when he 
suddenly felt ill. He went to the base clinic and collapsed inside, 
where Corpsmen immediately started CPR.
  Although there was a hospital defibrillator available in the clinic, 
the emergency medical technicians were not trained to use it. So, of 
course, they called for help. A doctor arrived and defibrillated him.
  After 8 months of limited duty, he was cleared to return to active 
duty and is currently assigned to the Office of Secretary of Defense.
  Commander Hearing's outcome could have been tragic if the doctor had 
not been available. If the doctor had not been available, the EMTs, who 
were not equipped with an automated external defibrillator, AED, would 
have likely watched Commander Hearing die.
  Commander Hearing knows how lucky he is today. His experience stands 
in contrast to another incident at the Pentagon in March of 1998.

                              {time}  1245

  Army Colonel Mike Moake was exercising in the Pentagon Athletic Club 
early one morning when he experienced a sudden cardiac arrest. 
Paramedics were called, and bystanders performed CPR on Colonel Moake. 
Medics arrived more than 20 minutes after his collapse and 
defibrillated him. They started his heart, but by that time Colonel 
Moake had suffered irreversible brain damage. Unfortunately, he died 2 
weeks later.
  If an automated external defibrillator had been available in this 
case, Colonel Moake's chances of survival would have improved 
immeasurably. Partly as a result of Colonel Moake's tragic death, the 
Pentagon is procuring and installing several AEDs. After Commander 
Hearing's experience in Fallon, Nevada, the Navy procured AEDs for the 
clinic and ambulances at several other military bases.
  The American Heart Association and American Red Cross objective is to 
advance legislation like the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act so others do 
not have to die or barely escape death before AEDs are made accessible 
to them.
  Bob Adams also had a dramatic experience that I also would like to 
share, Mr. Speaker, with my colleagues. This occurred on July 3, 1997. 
Bob Adams was walking through Grand Central Station in New York City 
when his heart suddenly stopped and he collapsed. He was 42 years old, 
a lawyer in a firm of 450 people, a husband, and a father of three 
young children. He was in perfect health and always had been. From the 
time he played collegiate basketball at Colgate College up to his 
current avocation as a NCAA basketball referee, health was a nonissue 
to him.
  Nevertheless, without warning, without any history of heart disease, 
he went into cardiac arrest the day before a holiday weekend, in a 
location through which half a million people pass every day.
  For Bob, timing was everything. On July 2, the day before he 
collapsed, the automated external defibrillator that the Metro North 
Commuter Railroad had ordered for use in Grand Central Station had 
arrived and the staff had been trained in its use.
  Bob's heart was stopped for approximately 5 minutes while the AED was 
put in place. It was unpacked from its shipping box and everyone hoped 
it had come with charged batteries. Thanks to the trained staff at the 
station and an EMT who happened to be present, his life was saved.
  Doctors have never discovered what happened to his heart. It simply 
stopped. Whatever it was, he and his wife Sue, along with their three 
children, Kimberly, Ryan and Kyle, are very glad there was an AED at 
Grand Central Station.
  Please join with me in cosponsoring H.R. 2498, the Cardiac Arrest 
Survival Act, and help save lives.

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