California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 23

Introduced by Assembly Member Salas

February 11, 2015

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 23—Relative to Automated External Defibrillator Awareness Week.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 23, as introduced, Salas. AED Awareness Week.

This measure would designate the week of February 22 through 28, 2015, as Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Awareness Week in California.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, AED is an acronym used as an abbreviation for
Automated External Defibrillator; and

WHEREAS, AEDs are portable medical devices that use
electrodes to automatically analyze and detect cardiac arrhythmia
of sudden cardiac arrest patients; and

WHEREAS, AEDs are able to produce a shock that stops the
heart and allows it to return to a normal rhythm, a process called
defibrillation; and

WHEREAS, AEDs are used in the event of a sudden cardiac
arrest, which is a condition in which the heart suddenly stops
pumping blood and quivers erratically; and

WHEREAS, About 360,000 cases of sudden cardiac arrest occur
yearly, typically without any warning signs; and

WHEREAS, More than 7,000 children and young adults
experience sudden cardiac arrest in the United States each year;
and

WHEREAS, Olivia Ruiz and Caleb Hannink, both Centennial
High School students in Bakersfield, and Jose Beltran from Cecil
Middle School in Delano, died from sudden cardiac arrest in 2004,
2012, and 2015, respectively, without an AED present on the
campus; and

WHEREAS, A person currently has about a 5 percent chance
of surviving an incident of cardiac arrest, which decreases by 7 to
10 percent with every minute that passes after a person’s heart
stops beating; and

WHEREAS, Optimal AED placement allows a person to grab
the AED and return to the victim within 90 seconds; and

WHEREAS, Given that a person’s chances of surviving a sudden
cardiac arrest decrease so rapidly, it is important that Californians
are aware of the importance of AEDs and their life-saving potential;
now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the week of February 22 through 28,
2015, be designated as Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
Awareness Week in California; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.