'It takes a tragedy.' CT is finally paying for heart defibrillators in schools
A 2009 law required Connecticut schools to have automated external defibrillators. But until now, the state didn't fund them.
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Connecticut schools are finally getting money for lifesaving defibrillators, thanks to the new state budget.
For one heart attack survivor, it comes after years of fighting for the funding.
“IT WAS VERY CHAOTIC”
Mike Papale was a star basketball player in high school. But one day at practice, everything changed.
“When I was 17 years old, I suffered a cardiac arrest,” he said. “I was in the hospital two weeks.”
Papale survived because an off-duty paramedic just happened to be nearby.
“I was just sitting there and slumped forward, and no one really knew what to do,” he said. “There was no defibrillator in the building where I was. It was very chaotic.”
AEDs IN SCHOOLS
Today, Papale runs the In A Heartbeat Foundation, which works to screens kids for heart defects and works to get automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, into every Connecticut school.
“That includes having a defibrillator within three minutes of all locations,” he said. “Having an AED is great, but if it can't get somewhere within three minutes, every minute that goes by is dropping the chance of survival.”
A 2009 state law requires schools to have AEDs – but only if the district can afford it.
Until now, the state has not followed through with funding.
But the new state budget authorized up to $3.5 million in borrowing for defibrillators at schools and other municipal buildings. Papale worked with the American Heart Association to lobby for the authorization.
“So when one of these emergencies happen, the people that are supposed to help are prepared,” Papale said.
Another law passed in 2021 requires school districts to establish protocols for using AEDs.
MORE HEART SCREENINGS FOR KIDS
Connecticut will soon expand heart screenings too.
Gov. Ned Lamont just signed a new law requiring all student-athletes to get a health assessment including "a physical exam that screens for serious cardiac conditions that could lead to sudden death.”
“It takes a tragedy for people to care,” said Artie DiRocco, whose son died from a heart condition, despite being a star athlete at Wilton High School. “Who thinks, ‘Oh, my perfectly healthy child has a heart condition? I should get an EKG.’”
DiRocco wanted to go further.
He supported legislation requiring players in “high-intensity” sports like football, basketball or hockey – with a family history of heart issues – to get an electrocardiogram too.
But DiRocco ran into opposition from a surprising group – coaches and cardiologists. They said mandatory EKGs (also known as ECGs) are unnecessary and confusing for parents.
“The requirement of EKGs for all student athletes for any ‘yes’ on the [family history] form doesn’t provide the highest quality medical care. An ECG is very often the next step, but there may be other important aspects of the work-up, Dr. Rachel Lampert with Yale School of Medicine told lawmakers. “We’re never going to catch everybody, but we can catch a lot of people.”
Papale is alive today by a stroke of miraculous luck. He said that students should need luck.
“If that man called sick into work that day, I would have not survived,” Papale said. “We associate heart disease as this old person's issue or the unhealthy or maybe a person who smokes or whatever. And we think heart disease just affect those people. But it affects young, healthy people.”
