Proposed Law Could Require Pools To Have Defibrillators

By Bryan P. Sears

Swim clubs in Baltimore County could be required next month to have life-saving cardiac equipment and trained staff under a proposed law being consideration by the Baltimore County Council.

The council is scheduled to vote Monday on a bill that would require automatic external defibrillators at nearly 600 pools and swim clubs around the county.

"This bill goes beyond what the state requires in Connor’s law," said Council Chairman Tom Quirk, a Catonsville Democrat and lead sponsor of the legislation. "It just makes good sense to do this."

Connor’s law, passed by the General Assembly in earlier this year, requires that any jurisdiction or municipality that owns or operates a swimming facility provide a defibrillator and staff who is trained to use the devices. The state law goes into effect Oct. 1.

Anne Arundel, Harford, Montgomery and Queen Anne’s counties have laws similar to the state law.

The bill sponsored by Quirk and council members David Marks and Ken Oliver,  a Republican and  Democrat respectively, requires all swimming facilities that are open to the public in the county to have the devices and trained staff on hand during hours of operation.

"We shouldn’t need an incident like the one involving Connor Freed to do this in Baltimore County," Marks said. 

The state law was named after Connor Freed who was 5 at the time of his drowning-related death at a pool at the Crofton Country Club. Connor died of cardiac arrest.

A defibrillator was available at the pool at the time of the incident involving Connor but staff on site told 911 operators that they were not allowed to use it, according to an email from Debbie Nagle-Freed, Connor’s mother. 

"We can’t put a price on life and the evidence proves that an AED is needed on site at a public pool and that they save lives," Nagle-Freed wrote in her email.

Nagle-Freed said that for the device to be most effective, it should be used within the first three minutes of a cardiac arrest.

"Each minute thereafter decreases your chance by 10 percent," she wrote.

Drowning is the leading cause of death in children between the ages of 1 and 4 and the fifth leading cause for people of all ages, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Ellen Kobler, a county spokeswoman, said the county "has had the devices at swimming beaches and public pools for a number of years."

The county also has the devices available at 30 recreation and parks facilities. The first six devices were part of a $15,000 donation to the county made in 2005 by developer Ed  St. John.

The donation was made a few months after the death of 4-year-old Benjamin Huxtable. The child was attending a Father’s Day baseball game and was struck in the chest by a ball while his dad was warming up at the Lutherville Park.

The ball disrupted Benjamin’s heart rhythm and he later died. County officials at the time said that incident caused them to consider placing the devices at area parks even though it’s not clear if the defibrillator would have saved the child’s life.