The Chicago Tribune had an article last week about a push to require high school training for portable defibrillator use.

George Laman wonders why nobody used the nearby portable defibrillator to restart his daughter’s heart when she died while practicing with her high school drill team. Eric Bell says he is alive today because his son learned CPR.

Now their two suburban families have formed a partnership that’s behind state legislation to require high school students to learn how to use the heart-starting device and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They’ve already won overwhelming approval in the Illinois House for a measure that’s similar to laws in eight states, and they’re setting their sights on Senate passage after the bill sailed out of a committee Tuesday.

There’s no money for school districts to pay for such training, however. Democratic Rep. Dan Burke of Chicago, the chief House sponsor suggests that local fire departments provide lifesaving lessons for free, as organizations like the Red Cross and American Heart Association already do. “They will train the school employees who will train the students,” he said.

But a group representing school boards throughout the state is opposed, saying the well-intentioned measure would amount to “another unfunded mandate,” given the state’s precarious financial situation.

The bill is backed by the American Heart Association, which says the use of CPR or an automated external defibrillator can double or triple survival rates. But CPR or AED must be administered immediately because for every minute that passes without assistance, the victim’s chance of survival decreases by 10 percent, giving paramedics less than 10 minutes to arrive, said Alex Meixner, the Illinois spokesman for the American Heart Association.

Laman’s only daughter, Lauren, 18, was a senior working on a dance routine in February 2008 when she collapsed and died in the St. Charles North High School cafeteria. She previously had been diagnosed with a heart condition called mitral valve prolapse, Kane County coroner and court records showed. She had been cleared by a family doctor to participate in athletics, and school officials had been notified of her condition, records showed.

To Eric Bell’s family, CPR is a lifesaver that needs to be taught statewide. In January, the 50-year-old Elmhurst resident’s heart stopped because of a blockage in one of his arteries. What saved Bell was 12 minutes of CPR performed by his son, Harry, and his wife, Brigette, until paramedics arrived at their home and took over, said Dr. Anand Ramanathan, the first to treat Bell.

Harry is a 17-year-old junior at Fenwick High School, a Catholic school in Oak Park where he learned CPR during his freshman health class. Brigette Bell’s only training came from watching CPR given at restaurant only a week before her husband’s heart attack.

Now that portable defibrillators are more readily available and easy to use, Laman said, education is the next needed step.

Tags: measure to require portable defibrillator training in high schools, The American Heart Association