WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — Sam Mazzeo is living proof.
He was 17 years old when his heart stopped during P.E. class at Cypress Creek High School.
A school nurse rushed to the football practice field and immediately started CPR until an AED arrived. Mazzeo, who is now 20 and attending college, credits that simple skill for saving his life.
"I feel like everybody needs to know it,” he said.
Florida high school students will now have to take CPR training to graduate from high school under a new bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday.
The law will require school districts to provide basic training in first aid and CPR for students in ninth and 11th grades. It also encourages school districts to provide the same training for students in grades 6 and 8.
Cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death on campus and is also the leading cause of death to student-athletes, according to the Senate version of the bill. The American Heart Association says one in five people who die from cardiac arrest could’ve been saved had bystanders given CPR.
“We know that without someone responding and knowing what to do, survival chances are very slim,” said Amanda Palumbo, American Heart Association Tampa Bay’s executive director.
“Only about 10 percent of individuals who experience a cardiac arrest survive, but once they get CPR their chances double or triple.”
In Tampa Bay, the American Heart Association has been providing training for students and staff in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough schools for several years, where it’s already a requirement to graduate.
They’ve also provided CPR training kits to schools in Sarasota and Manatee where training is offered, but not a requirement for graduation.
“It does not take long to learn hands-only CPR,” Palumbo said. “When we teach this skill in the schools, the students get the opportunity to practice on mannequins… it can be taught in less than one class period.”
Florida now joins 39 other states where similar training requirements are already in place. For Mazzeo’s mother, Lona, a statewide mandate in Florida should’ve happened a lot sooner.
“I know we’re not the only parents who’ve pushed and pushed this for years,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Ed Kosiec drove more than six hours to attend every hearing on the bill this session so he could speak directly to lawmakers.
Kosiec went into cardiac arrest while eating lunch in a restaurant in 2019. He says a teen who worked there performed CPR until medics arrived.
It’s why he’s alive today, he says.
“I would not be here today if it wasn’t for CPR,” he told 10 Tampa Bay. “That’s why I’m out here doing what I’m doing because I want more people to survive.”
With the bill now signed into law, Kosiec is now traveling the country on a tour to teach others the life-saving skill.
“I’m on state 17 out of 48 states I’m going to,” he said on a Zoom call Tuesday from Idaho. Kosiec now runs his own non-profit "Every Second Counts CPR" and is certified to teach CPR classes.
“I’m on a mission to train everybody and anybody who wants to listen,” he said. “Because I’ve been given a gift and I want more people to have that gift, too.”
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