Premier shows support for defibrillators in NSW schools
Jacob Richards was just 15 when he suddenly collapsed in 2009.
Months earlier he has competed at state athletics with no sign anything was wrong.
"If I had had a defibrillator and I had of had it handy, I could have saved his life,” mum Leeann Richards said.
Now Leeann Richards is backing a campaign for school defibrillators, so young lives can be saved.
Every week, four Australian kids die from sudden cardiac arrest.
Their best chance of survival is early defibrillation and CPR.
But current New South Wales laws don't allow life-saving defibrillators on public school grounds.
The current policy in New South Wales does not support them.
Other states, such as Victoria, allow them.
We first covered this story in November of 2014. Since then, a change.org petition has exploded online, proving it's not just the experts but the broader community who understand that mandatory CPR training and defibrillators in our public schools is not only good science, it's common sense.
7News put that to Mike Baird.
“A as someone who is a local lifesaver I understand the importance of being ready,” Prmeier Mike Baird said.
“And the more people are prepared, the more lives you can save. So that's a very sensible proposal we will consider in detail."
Sydney University cardiologist Professor Chris Semsarian has driven this campaign.
“What we're proposing is a very sensible, logical, public health program to prevent sudden death in our community and mainly in children and teenagers,” he said.
A lifesaving initiative, we'll keep pushing.
Show your support by signing the change.org petition here.
