Alabama Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, credits his colleague and friend Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, for helping to save his life in July by performing CPR after he suffered a cardiac event.
Now, Orr and Melson are sponsoring a bill to expand CPR training in public schools to include hands-on training in the technique and the use of automated external defibrillators.
The required training would begin in the 2024-2025 academic year, according to the bill.
Senate Bill 59 was approved in the Senate Health Committee, chaired by Melson, on Wednesday after Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, amended it to call it the “Sen. Tim Melson Act.”
Melson, an anesthesiologist, has said ventricular fibrillation, a dangerous form of irregular heartbeat, caused him to go into cardiac arrest while on a trip to South Korea with other lawmakers and state leaders.
Orr estimates he performed CPR on and off for about 30 minutes until medical help arrived. Another member of the delegation located a defibrillator and tried to restore Melson’s heartbeat.
Orr said he’d received CPR training a few times in his life but had never had to use it.
“Fortunately, I was able to use that to the best of my recollection and capabilities,” he told Alabama Daily News. “… The experience in South Korea impressed on me the importance of CPR training and defibrillator use.”
Melson spent about two weeks in a South Korean hospital and about five days on different forms of life support.
“I like the concept of having kids be able to save lives in certain situations,” he told ADN.
On the first day of the Alabama Legislature’s 2024 session earlier this month, Melson took a moment on the Senate floor to thank his colleagues, State House staff and others who reached out to him and his family while he was ill.
“Sen. Orr, I’m not going to say anything cute or funny except thank you,” Melson said.
Watch Melson describe his experience on a recent episode of Capitol Journal below.