Definitively green light from the Social Affairs Commission of the Chamber in the legislative setting the law that provides for the dissemination of defibrillators in public and work places and training courses in schools.
The Undersecretary of Defense announced the approval of the provision Giorgio Mulé, promoter of the initiative, which speaks of a “law awaited for 20 years in Italy which I have always defined as ‘life saving’ because it will allow us to save thousands of lives every year, to spread a culture of prevention and first aid. filled an all-Italian regulatory vacuum “.
What the law provides
The law provides significant innovations aimed at strengthening first aid in the event of cardiac arrest such as the obligation to introduce the teaching of cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers to school, the obligation for professional and amateur sports clubs to equip themselves with defibrillators, one allocation of 10 million euros for the deployment of AEDs over the next five years in highly frequented places such as airports, railway stations, ports, schools and universities and on means of transport (airplanes, trains, ships).
News also in the Criminal Code
The law introduces important new aspects also within the Italian penal code: “It is foreseen that in emergency situations, in the event of a cardiac arrest event and the possibility of using an automatic or semi-automatic defibrillator, there will be no plus no risk of having to respond criminally for any incorrect maneuvers in the use of the instrument itself. It is a question of allowing anyone who finds himself in a state of necessity in having to use the defibrillator in out-of-hospital contexts, to be able to act even where the subject is not adequately trained for its use “, explain the promoters.
The law establishes that, in the absence of health personnel or non-health personnel trained in first aid, even ordinary citizens, who have not received specific training, are authorized to use AEDs.
“The new law on automatic external defibrillators represents a protection for the life and health of people because it introduces elements that improve first aid in the event of cardiac arrest”, he observes Andrea Scapigliati, past president and member of the board of directors of IRC, Italian Resuscitation Council, a non-profit scientific society recognized by the Ministry of Health that unites doctors and nurses experts in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and who contributed to the definition of the contents of the law thanks to the hearings in Social Affairs Commission of the Chamber.
“It is important that a rapid and effective application of the law is achieved through, for example, the introduction of uniform criteria for the dissemination of AEDs in public places and sports facilities, the creation of a geo-localized national map of AEDs that allows them to be identified quickly thanks to mobile applications and the start of training at school. It is IRC’s goal to continue to collaborate with institutions to raise awareness and train citizens on first aid “, adds Scapigliati.
Every year in Italy 60 thousand cardiac arrests
In Europe, approximately 400,000 cardiac arrests occur every year (60,000 in Italy) and it is estimated that only in 58% of cases the carer intervenes with life-saving maneuvers (heart massage, ventilations) and in 28% of cases with the defibrillator. The survival rate is 8%.
Many of these innovations are also present in the new European guidelines on first aid recently updated and published by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC), of which IRC is a part, based on the recommendations of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR). IRC is taking care of the Italian translation of the document. The new law therefore places Italy at the forefront of first aid reform.
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