Cliff Stearns: “last week, Senator Slade Gorton joined with me in sponsoring the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act. This legislation was…”

“last week, Senator Slade Gorton joined with me in sponsoring the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act. This legislation was developed with the assistance of the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross. I will be introducing this bill this week and I urge my colleagues to join me as original cosponsors. What is the purpose of this bill? I think that could best be told by retelling a personal experience that I heard last week during our press conference on this legislation. A Mr. Bob Adams provides us with one of the most compelling reasons to pass the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act. Mr. Speaker, he is still alive today because of an automatic external defibrillator, an AED. Let me explain. On July 3, 1997, Bob Adams, who was 42 years old at the time, was walking through Grand Central Station in New York City when his heart stopped and he collapsed. He is a lawyer in a firm with 450 people, a husband, a father of three children. He was in perfect health and in fact he had always experienced good health. In fact, Bob would tell that he was the least likely person in his firm of 450 employees to have an experience such as this. He was captain of his college basketball team, played professional basketball in Europe, and today is a nationally known college basketball referee.”