Maryland bill being pushed that would require AEDs in more public places
A bill in the legislature aims to increase the number of places that would be required to have automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs.
It's named after a man who's wife has been on a mission to get these devices more accessible to the public. Joe Sheya died in 2014 when he had sudden cardiac arrest, not getting a shock from an AED until 11 minutes after.
It happened at a restaurant, one of the places AED's aren't required under state law.
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The bill would require restaurants and other food facilities like coffee shops, cafeterias, even grocery stores to have AED's.
This would only impact businesses making more than $400,000 a year.
Businesses would also have to provide for training. It's one of the issues from the Maryland Retailers Association. Cailey Locklair, MRA's president, argued staffing is already hard enough.
"With high turnover, numerous shifts in retail, ensuring somebody meets the state's requirements for training and having them on every single shift just may not be possible," she said.
