Defibrillator Bill Becomes Law

A bill signed into law this week could save many lives in the Garden State. S-852, sponsored by Senators Joe Vitale and Bob Gordon protects from civil liability any Good Samaritans who use an automated external defibrillators while attempting to save someone's life.

“We need to make sure that the law recognizes the life-saving potential of these devices and shield good Samaritans from lawsuits should they malfunction or if, even with the good faith efforts to revive someone, the person dies," said Senator Vitale, Chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee.

The law eliminates language in the state statue that requires a person using an AED have received training in both CPR and the usage of the AED. If a lay person uses an AED and fails, in good faith, to request emergency medical assistnce as soon as possible, he/she would be immune from civil liability.

In the United States, nearly 300,000 people are victims of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) each year – a condition where the heart’s electrical system malfunctions and stops pumping blood to the rest of the body, often without any visible symptoms. According to the Cleveland Clinic, if a heart in sudden cardiac arrest is defibrillated within the first minute, there is a 90 percent chance that the patient will survive. Survival rates decrease 10 percent for every minute a person in SCA waits to be defibrillated. Due to a lack of access to AEDs, currently only five percent of people in SCA survive. Early defibrillation is the most critical step for survival for someone experiencing SCA.

An automated external defibrillator is a portable device that is used to restore heart rhythms to patients in cardiac arrest. It automatically analyzes the heart rhythm of the patient and advises the user whether or not a defibrillation is needed to return the patient to a normal heart beat.

The law was approved by the Legislature in February.