It could soon be the law here in Michigan that all public school students will have to learn CPR before graduating high school.
At the State Capitol Thursday, heart attack survivors, along with the American Heart Association testified before a House Education committee about the life saving benefits.
Medical experts say learning CPR is a skill every high school student should know.
This is a fight by the American Heart Association to save lives.
It says if all Michigan students learned basic CPR before graduation, there would be an additional 100,000 more trained life savers each year.
Sudden cardiac arrest is among the most common causes of death in the United States.
Nearly 357,000 people have cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year. Just 8% survive.
The American Heart Association says knowing CPR can triple survival rates, because people trained in it can provide emergency assistance until emergency crews arrive.
"What we know is that four out of five cardiac arrests happen in the home," says Sarah Poole with the American Heart Association, "and so what that means is when somebody performs CPR it's likely to be on a loved one. We believe, and we've seen in other states, when you train all high school students, you put more lifesavers into the community and you save lives. And usually, as I said, family members lives."
Last week, students at Fowler High School got a surprise drill in CPR training.
They learned how to perform CPR and were also trained on how to use a defibrillator in case someone were to go in cardiac arrest.
Thirty-one states have already passed laws requiring students to learn CPR before they graduate. The American Heart Association hopes Michigan will be next.
