According to Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a leading cause of death in the U.S, and killing 325,000 people each year. That is more than the total death rate for breast cancer, lung cancer and HIV/ AIDS combined. It is time for us to not only be aware of the facts but take action and save lives. To be able to do that, we should make cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) a mandatory for high school and college graduation requirements, because the more people know CPR, the higher the chance for survival. A person having sudden cardiac arrest is lying between life and death, only people who know CPR can save those at risk. We should all be people who can save lives, especially when deaths caused by SCA can be prevented.
What is sudden cardiac arrest? It is an electrical problem, whereby the arrhythmia prevents the heart from pumping blood to the brain and vital organs. There are no warning signs or symptoms, therefore, it can cause a sudden and unexpected death. The purpose of CPR is to keep oxygenated blood flowing around the body to keep the vital organs alive. Although CPR itself cannot restart someone’s heart, but it can keep them alive until a defibrillator arrives. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is incredibly important, every year thousands of people suffer accidents and illnesses that are treatable with CPR and basic first aid, not only for SCA.
The more people know CPR, the more people survive after having cardiac arrests or heart attack or any kind of problems that relate to CPR. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), nearly 325,000 cardiac arrest every year, expect only about 30% of those victims receive CPR and 88% occurring when the victims are not surrounded by CPR-trained people. There was a large amount of people who had to die because there are not enough people who know CPR. SCA can happen at any time and anywhere. We should have CPR trained people everywhere to save as many lives as we can. This doesn’t mean that we have to put them in certain places but if we have people from different locations learning CPR then we will save lives no matter where it may occur. We can’t just think that the purpose of learning it is to save other people’s lives, but we need to also think that one day if SCA ever happens to us, other people can save our lives too. We all should join hands to protect each other.
The best way to teach students CPR is by making it a high school and college graduation requirement. School is where students are taught to learn things they are supposed to know and to be more educated. Why are math, English, and history required, but CPR is not? Math and history at some parts may not even be applied in our lives. However, CPR it is a lifesaving technique that gives us a chance to save somebody’s life. There’s no reason for us to ask why it should be a graduation requirement. If we don’t make them learn, they probably won’t learn it until they see someone pass away and only then they realize how important it is for them to know it. How many people are going to die before this realization hits? We can’t wait for more people to die to prove that CPR is important. We can educate them all about CPR when they take the class in school. High School and college are the best places for students to learn it because they are already there learning other things. It would be harder to tell them go pay to take the class outside school. Moreover, CPR needs those that have upper body strength to do effective compressions and high school is a great place to start teaching CPR.
There are now 27 U.S states have made CPR training a high school graduation requirement. But about another half of the country, while some states only require schools to offer training, students themselves are not required to take it. Most of these student don’t elect to take CPR or fist aid training courses. They haven’t realized the importance of it. According to CIF State, SCA is 60% more likely to occur during exercise and sports, leaving athletes at greater risk. In school, there are so many young athletes who play football, basketball, and soccer, etc. Therefore, cardiac arrest could be more likely to occur in schools. About two years ago, there was a boy in my high school who suddenly had SCA when running miles on the field. A couple days after, I heard that he was brought to the hospital after getting CPR by his teacher, survived. He was lucky because the teacher knew how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation. What if it happened to someone playing football or soccer during flex time? There’s no time to find a teacher for help. Cardiac Science shared Greg Moyer’s story. He collapsed and died of sudden cardiac arrest while playing in high school basketball game in East Stroudsburg. He died because his school did not have an automated external defibrillator available and there were no nearby emergency medical services. It’s sad that no one knew how to help him, when he could be alive today if someone there was able to give him quick CPR. A quick action is really key to survival. All students should know the importance of CPR and it should be taught in every school.
Moreover, CPR does not only save people from cardiac arrest, but there are also a lot of medical emergencies that may require CPR such as: heart attack, drug overdose, excessive bleeding, and infection in the bloodstream, near drowning, and some accidents. CPR can rescue us from many different situations. Even though it doesn’t always successfully save lives, but it really helps provide some benefit to the victims. Doing something is better than nothing. We don’t want to be impotent looking at someone dying. It is so meaningful when we know that we may save someone from death.
In an emergency situation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be a truly lifesaving technique. No human being can live without oxygen, but CPR can keep oxygenate the blood flowing to a person alive long enough to receive medical care from a professional. This can mean the difference between life and death. There’s no valid reasons to not enforce CPR training. All of us should learn it, therefore, we need to start with high school students who have enough upper body strength to give effective compressions. CPR can make our lives better because we are able to save people’s lives. We can prevent the number of people that die every year just by knowing CPR. More people will be able to survive if there’s more people that know how to perform these important techniques. Let’s work together to make our country a safer country.
Statement of goals and choices
I am trying to say that all of us should learn CPR, everyone can save lives, and we can prevent the number of people that die every year. To reach the goal, I say that we should make CPR and first aid class a high school and college graduation requirements. I use a lot of facts to show the audience CPR is a great lifesaving technique that we should know. Also, I use people’s stories about who survived by receiving CPR and died without receiving it. I want to create emotions to the audience can feel how it really helps. I want to show how much CPR really means to someone who needs it. If every high school in the U.S made CPR a graduation requirement, there would be so many people know CPR. We would feel safer living in the country. I think giving facts and ethos is the best way to persuade my audience on this topic. Because the facts give them true information and make them believe, and ethos gives the audience emotions to feel the way I want them to. I want them to think about people who had passed away, and people they know who could be a next victim. I think that would make them think that they really need to learn to able to save their loved ones and other people.
