The Timothy Q. Scott Foundation was instrumental in getting two important bills passed this year in Maryland: The Sudden Cardiac Prevention Act (HB427) and Breanna's Law (SB503).
HB427 requires the Maryland State Department of Education, in collaboration with specified entities, to develop policies and to implement a program to provide awareness to coaches, school personnel, students, and parents or guardians of students on the risk of sudden cardiac arrest; requiring a county board of education to provide information and a notice to specified students and parents or guardians; requiring a student and parent or guardian to sign a specified statement, etc. HB427 passed after a 3rd reading on the House Floor with a vote of 136-0; and after a third reading on the Senate Floor with a vote 47-0.
SB503 ensures that all high school students complete a hands-only CPR course before they graduate. Right now across our country, those who suffer out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) have only a 9.5% chance of surviving. Roughly 4,000 Marylanders suffer SCA each year and this bill can change the odds for them. By training students in CPR in school, every year we'll be increasing the number of citizens in our communities prepared to respond in a cardiac emergency.
