An American Heart Association volunteer is helping shine a light on a major gap in lifesaving education across Massachusetts and making the case for why every high school student should graduate knowing CPR.
Nayan Sapers, a senior at Harvard University and an EMT with Harvard’s Emergency Medical Services, has been working with the American Heart Association in Massachusetts to advocate for legislation that would make CPR training a requirement for high school graduation. Massachusetts is one of just nine states in the country that does not have such a requirement in place.
As part of that advocacy, Sapers recently wrote an op-ed published on MassLive, calling attention not only to the importance of CPR education, but to disparities in who receives it. While some schools across the state already teach CPR, a survey Sapers conducted found that schools in lower-income communities — where bystander CPR rates are often lower — are less likely to offer this training.
Read the full op-ed on MassLive.com
When cardiac arrest strikes, immediate CPR can double or even triple a person’s chance of survival. Yet too many students graduate without ever learning this simple, lifesaving skill, especially in communities that already face higher health risks and longer emergency response times.
Through his work with the American Heart Association, Sapers has become a powerful advocate for health education, emphasizing that CPR training should not depend on a student’s ZIP code. Making CPR a graduation requirement, he says, would help build a generation of prepared responders across Massachusetts.